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| As of today--the total wages paid yearly to every employee of Escambia County (already an often requested public record) is available for citizens to search in a newly established database that went live today. |
The state of Florida has a website where citizens can search for the total compensation for any state employee---because this data is a public record and citizens have the right to know.
The salaries of the public employees of local governments are also a public record.
We often receive public records requests for this information on specific employees.
But if the state can publish a searchable database--why can't the county?
Answer: we can. And now we are.
As a part of my NEXT4Escambia plan--a strategy position paper I have developed for addressing specific issues over the next four years that I have written based upon public input---this very sort of an open, searchable salary database initiative was a major component!
I brought it forward to the administrator, the idea was socialized with my counterparts, and ----voila---here it is. Glad we got it done.
Now, citizens do not have to ask permission to see the total wages paid to any Escambia County Employee--they just need to go here--and look it up for themselves. They can peruse all of the salaries or just look for specific individuals.
It is important that citizens know what we pay our employees, because we treat our employees well and they are well compensated with good pay and generous benefits. Often times an employee's total wages paid will greatly exceed what an "hourly rate" might otherwise indicate. So folks need to look at this.
Surprisingly--we have dozens of job openings in multiple departments that we have had a tough time filling. I tell folks that working for the county, you'll never get rich--but if start out and stick with it and make it a career--you will have excellent benefits and a pension and if you stick it out you can have a great retirement!
NOTE:--this database indicates total wages paid per the FISCAL year, not calendar year.
I am going to request that the IT folks also add a "date of hire" column to the database, as I feel this will be a good addition to add some context to the salary information (e.g. is the employee "new" or a "journeyman")
Commissioner May asked if we could add a column for employee race and sex, and I believe that is in the works as well.
