California’s best-paid public employees are not necessarily household names. Newly reviewed records show a small group of pension investment officials, prison staffers and highway patrol employees receiving taxpayer-funded compensation packages that can climb as high as $2 million.
At the top of the state payroll last year was Stephen Gilmore, the chief investment officer for the California Public Employees Retirement System. His total compensation reached $2.36 million, made up of a $720,608 salary, close to $100,000 in benefits and an eye-catching $1.5 million listed as “other pay.”
The compensation figures come from public payroll data compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Roughly 250 California state employees earned more than $600,000, with most of those high earners clustered in a handful of agencies: the California Public Employees Retirement System, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Gilmore was the only state employee whose total compensation surpassed $2 million, but several other pension executives crossed the $1 million mark, boosted in large part by “other pay,” a category that can include performance-related bonuses.
Managing Director Arnold Phillips received $1.73 million in total compensation, including $1 million categorized as “other pay.” Deputy investment chief Daniel Bienvenue and executive officer Marcie Frost each brought in about $1.6 million.
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CalPERS, which oversees more than $600 billion in assets, is the largest public pension system for government workers in the United States.
High salaries are not limited to the pension world, either — some California prison mental health professionals are also collecting substantial paychecks.
Samita Gandhi, a staff psychiatrist at Corrections and Rehabilitation, was that department’s highest-paid worker with $873,872 in total comp. Chief psychiatrist Olivia Del Pilar and staff shrink Damon Walcott weren’t far behind it $841,878 and $822,971, respectively.
Tai Vong, chief of the California Highway Patrol who retired one year ago, made an eye-popping $914,554 in total comp in his final year — including a “lump sum” payment of $398,000. His fellow chiefs James Mann and Donald Goodbrand earned $838,272 and $824,122 and one sergeant, Leonard Tomboc, earned $812,678.
Another outlier was Vernon Steiner, who runs the State Compensation Insurance Fund. His taxpayer-backed earnings last year were $1.2 million, including a $702,791 annual base salary.
Ian Choudri, who’s in charge of California’s embattled High Speed Rail project, also earned a pretty penny at $638,943 in compensation last year.
Departments with the worst-compensated workers include Motor Vehicles and Veterans Affairs — both of which have median wages under $71,000, according to the Chronicle’s analysis.
