Mayor also plans to tell how much overtime each worker is paid
City firefighters blast mayor for listing salaries on Web site
It might become one of the more popular features on the city’s Web site. Internet surfers are now able to find out the base salaries of most city employees. By early summer, the site will also disclose how much overtime each worker made in the fiscal year that ends June 30.
But Mayor Byron W. Brown’s new initiative has infuriated the fire union, which is threatening to sue him for harassment.
Brown insisted his only goal is to continue to promote “transparent and open government,” noting that salary data for government workers is public information.
“Now, without people having to dig for it, having to hunt for it, or having to [file Freedom of Information requests], this information will be readily available on the city’s Web site,” he said.
The base salaries of about 2,400 employees were posted on the Web site Thursday at www.city-buffalo.com . Brown said the data will be more complete than what most other municipalities post on their sites, because Buffalo includes workers’ names instead of only job titles. Daniel Cunningham, president of the fire union, assailed the move, saying he will talk with attorneys about the possibility of filing a harassment lawsuit against Brown.
“The mayor is just trying to embarrass the men and women in the uniformed ranks for doing jobs that most people in the city appreciate,” said Cunningham.
Brown denied any desire to embarrass employees, and he praised firefighters and police officers for doing “a fantastic job.” But he argued the city has a legal right and an obligation to make such data available to the public.
City officials added that it would only have been a matter of time before the salaries were posted on other sites. For example, SeeThroughNY (http: www.seethroughny.net ) has been compiling and posting government salaries. Brown said he thinks some people will be surprised at how low many salaries are for some public servants. But he added that others may conclude that some government workers are overpaid. When overtime is tallied after the fiscal year ends, Brown said Web surfers will see for themselves how dramatically paychecks increase.
“Some employees who have complained about what they earn actually earn a very competitive salary,” he said. “They will see that there are many employees — maybe more than a hundred — [who] actually earn more than the mayor earns.”
Brown is paid $105,000 a year.
But Cunningham said Brown is only telling part of the story.
“The mayor’s mismanagement of the Fire Department is what has caused this overtime,” the union chief charged.
The city’s refusal to address staffing shortages and other practices has caused overtime in firehouses to hit record highs, union officials have long maintained. The city plans to hire a new class of fire recruits in September.
Brown said numerous employees have raised concerns about having their salaries posted on the Web. For example, some suggested that workers going through divorces might not want their spouses to have access to salary data. Brown said the information could be obtained through other channels. The Common Council and comptroller’s office also will soon post salary data on Buffalo’s Web site, officials said Thursday. Brown also has asked the Buffalo Board of Education and the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority to adopt similar policies.
In the near future, the city will add salary data for all employees who work in city agencies, including the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp. and the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency. Buffalo joins a number of municipalities that have started listing salary data for workers on the Internet. For example, Orchard Park lists the wages of all employees, but it does so by job title — not by name. Orchard Park also includes the costs associated with providing fringe benefits to workers.
Brown said it’s possible Buffalo will include such information as the city develops the system. Benefits can account for up to one-third of the costs of municipal workers’ compensation, especially employees on lower salary tiers.
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