The average City of Phoenix worker makes $57,000 or almost twice the $34,335 an average Arizona worker makes. Well 1.66 times the average Arizona worker to be exact. The average City of Phoenix employee makes $22,665 more then an average Arizona worker makes.

Phoenix management's 6-figure salaries worry councilman, union head

The 527 city of Phoenix employees who earn more than $100,000 in annual wages account for 7.4 percent of the total salaries paid to full-time workers.

But an analysis shows that those six-figure earners represent only 3.7 percent of the city's 14,343-employee workforce.

About 1,375 employees earn more than $88,005, or the base salary of Mayor Phil Gordon. And only one of the top 10 Phoenix earners was a woman.

It was the first time Phoenix released the salary information in an electronic format since the Arizona Supreme Court ruled last fall that government agencies must provide the public with electronic records, including embedded data.

The salary figures do not account for overtime pay or furloughs.

Records show the median annual salary for full-time city workers was $57,000 though the total cost to taxpayers is about $74,100 per employee when health benefits, bonuses, retirement pensions and other perks are taken into account.

Too much fat?

In 2008, the average Arizona worker made just $34,335 a year, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

Councilman Sal DiCiccio, who has criticized the size of Phoenix's spending on employees, said his calculations show the average total cost per worker is more than $100,000, something he sees as untenable as city leaders struggle to close a $245 million budget shortfall through the 2010-11 fiscal year.

"That's extremely high, and it tells me we have systemic issues we have to deal with at the city," DiCiccio said. [ Isn't Councilman Sal DiCiccio an ex-Phoenix cop who continues to vote to hire more high paid cops! Cops that start at about $50,000 before overtime. ]

Labor union leaders, who are negotiating a new two-year contract, said the number of six-figure salary earners suggests there's still too much fat at the top. [Yea! They think the average cop should be making $100K with his boss only making $110K]

"They're top heavy. They need to cut upper management because last time they didn't do that," said Nancy Gray, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 2960. "The people actually providing services to the citizens - those were the people they cut. [Damn right! They are firing help desk clerks at the library that make $20,000, not the cops they are paying $100,000 to surf the internet pretending to be a horny 14 year old girl who wants to have sex with older men] And the people paying their taxes are receiving less and less services."

Significant sacrifices

But City Manager David Cavazos, Phoenix's highest paid official, said management has been cut at the same rate as front-line employees. [Beleive that and I have some land I want to sell you in Flordia] And he pledged that in March the 20-person City Manager's Office will be cut by a greater percentage than any other city department.

Cavazos' office includes an assistant city manager, plus five deputy city managers.

"There will be lots of pain at the top," he said. "We need to show leadership."

Cavazos, who was appointed to the top post in November earning $236,995 a year, said many of the high-wage earners have specific skill sets and years of experience that make them valuable to the city.

"There are a lot of employees whose salary is commensurate with the work they do," Cavazos added. "We do believe our ratio of managers to employees is appropriate. "

Cavazos' top deputy, Assistant City Manager Ed Zuercher, said employees have been making significant sacrifices to reduce costs. [ Yea like David J. Ramirez demoted from his $105,368 job as Phoenix's top propaganda master to the lowly job of Sky Harbor Airport propaganda master with a lowly pay of $81,245 for sexually harassing subordinates. Why does Phoenix need a propaganda master or public information director as they call it that pays $105,368 and a second job of airport propaganda master that pays $81,245? ]

While union workers this fiscal year received raises negotiated back in 2008, executives and middle-managers, about 150 workers, received no bump in salary.

Meanwhile, workers across categories have voluntarily taken furloughs, or unpaid days off, in hopes of averting some layoffs. Since December 2008, furloughs have saved the city more than $822,000 in wages.