Wow.

four of the top five earners are: Portland Police Officers (PPB). Derrick Foxworth comes in at #4.

What does PASS mean for police officers...in the under $40,000.00 class?

There was more discussion and explanation of this here.

All city employees have already gotten an email saying the information was requested under FOIA, and turned over to the Oregonian.

Frank: Whom in HR should I ask to send me a copy? Got an e-mail address?

Jack Bog Frank: Whom in HR should I ask to send me a copy? Got an e-mail address?
JK: I think you have to have staff attorneys to get their attention, otherwise they probably ignore you with some BS excuse like Trimet does. See
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1177295119198741.xml&coll=7

Thanks
JK

Jim: We blogged about that yesterday. In this case, since they've already sent the list to the O, I doubt that they would resist too hard against the same request by someone else. But then again, you're more experienced in these matters than I.

This year the city will collect and spend about 2.9 billion (with a "b") dollars. One third of that money is inter-agency. In other words, the city will spend almost a billion dollars on services it buys from itself. City attorney time billed to the water bureau. Programming time billed to Parks. Vehicle maintenance billed to the Police Dept... etc.

The billion dollar question is:

Are those services purchased at rates competitive with the private sector? If not, does that billion simply buoy up a bloated bureaucracy with a payroll to match?

sacrilege!

You already know the answer, Mister Lister. It's all about sustainability...

...of the bureaucracy.

That's why we need Dave on Council-to ask the "billion dollar questions". Keep trying, Dave.

"Are those services purchased at rates competitive with the private sector?"

I am in the high tech field and instrumentation technicians do not make $97,474 and neither do CAD engineers make $102K or $104K. At those prices, contract it out and hire 3x the number of people!

Keep Portland weird! and broke!

The many other questions are "what did YOU do today to earn that pay", asked of eveyone.
Too many burearcrats go through the motions of a job and program while providing very little or no useable service or work product.
A plan, a report, an assessment, review or any number of means of amassing material which never gets used for anything by anyone.

Since Human Resources is part of the Office Of Management & Finance, and under the Mayor, I'd send any requests for information there:

http://www.portlandonline.com/mayor/

Are those services purchased at rates competitive with the private sector? If not, does that billion simply buoy up a bloated bureaucracy with a payroll to match?

Years ago, the City Attorney's Office stopped being a "free" service to the bureaus, and they were charged based on billable hours used. The problem that created, though, was that people weren't using those services when they should have been. That idea was dropped, though I can't say what they're doing these days.

Billable hours isn't always a good marker for need. I'm not denying what seem "inflated" costs between bureaus can't be or isn't an issue, but it's sort of like firefighters...you pay them for an awful lot of down time, but you need them there when you really need them.

Believe me, the bureaus themselves do the most squawking about "inflated" costs, and the system, while not exactly self-correcting, does have some checks and balances. If anything it's the private sector model of each bureau being "self-sustaining" or (oh, no!) "profitable" that greats some of the worse inflated rates.

General Fund overhead...now that's worth a comment or two, but I'm on my way to catch a flight to NY to see my pregnant daughter and her husband. And Jack you may NOT call me Grandpa. :-)

I am in the high tech field and instrumentation technicians do not make $97,474 and neither do CAD engineers make $102K or $104K

CAD Software Engineer is a "Computer Aided Dispatch" engineer, not a "computer aided design" engineer. Something to do with the 911 system.

I was wondering why a CAD drafter was making that much as well...

Any chance anybody will dig up this information on the Multnomah County payroll? Especially since Wheeler is asking the City to take over services like collecting dead animals. I'm willing to bet there are enough new staff being added in the new budget to cover that service and more. The county budget is all by "programs" and it's pretty easy to include a new position or keep existing ones even when the "program" is being scaled back.