Observing Controller Galperin's salary data for the DWP

The LA Observed segment on KCRW tonight (listen here) covered the database created by Controller Ron Galperin to compare the salaries paid at the Department of Water and Power to those paid to other city of Los Angeles employees. The radio piece was inspired by Bill Boyarsky's weekend column for LA Observed, in which he noted that the City Hall technological environment is so Byzantine that Galperin had to take his data to a private web address outside the city's servers. I delve into that a bit in the segment with host Steve Chiotakis.

Likewise inspired by Bill's column, Eric Spiegelman massaged the Galperin data and posted the results at LA Currents. Sample:

Galperin's website is a little cumbersome to operate, partly because he uses some janky widgets to embed his data, but mostly because some of the job classifications listed in the DWP database don’t perfectly match their counterparts in the City database....

There are 150 job classifications that show up in both the DWP salary database and the City of Los Angeles salary database. Of those 150 positions, DWP salaries are higher for 136 of them.

The only jobs that pay better at the City of Los Angeles than at the DWP are: top level Civil Engineer, top level Delivery Driver, top level Engineering Geologist, top level Environmental Affairs Officer, Instrument Mechanic, top level Investment Officer, Occupational Health Nurse, Printing Services Superintendent, top level Property Manager, Senior Project Coordinator, and top level Street Tree Superintendent. In addition, the Assistant General Manager of the Airport is paid 8% more than the Assistant General Manager of the DWP, but all of the other Assistant General Managers of the City are paid much less. Administrative interns make a touch more at the DWP than at the City.

Spiegelman's bottom line: "If you're a cabinet maker, carpenter, painter, cement finisher, welder or graphics designer, you will make approximately 20% more money working for the DWP than you would working for the City." That's what Galperin said as well.

Graphic: LA Currents