Kamenetz: Balto. County employee salaries going online
Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced plans to post salaries of 7,800 government employees online on Friday.
The Baltimore Sun has been in touch with county officials in recent weeks while preparing to launch its own database. The Sun sent a request to the county last August for each employee’s annual salary, including name, title, department and hire date. In addition, the newspaper asked for each employee’s actual gross pay from 2008 to 2010, including overtime, expenses and other payments that would be added to the annual salary, along with the county’s check log. The Sun’s databases for the city and state are currently online.
UPDATE: The Sun's county employee database is now live.
Kamenetz said the county’s database will be placed under the human resources section of the website and show the base salary of every employee, including first and last names, as of June 30.
The effort is designed to “increase transparency of county government operations” and was not triggered by the newspaper’s request, spokeswoman Ellen Kobler said.
In a statement, the county executive said, “People expect government to be open and forthcoming with information and that is what we are doing in Baltimore County.”
Comments
Increase transparency? While your at it, why not inlcude the mailing address, social security number, and date of birth? You either put the employee's job title, or classification, NOT THEIR FULL NAME! This always creates animosity in the work place. And not to mention, it provides personal information to malefactors in society.
Next time, can we please try to elect someone with a little common sense?
Posted by: MyXxcellency | June 30, 2011 11:07 AM
When are we going to see all of the salaries at the Baltimore Sun? And date of hire, etc? The press holds itself out as vital to the republic. How is it any more important to know what my next door neighbor who may be an office secretary is making than to know what the editorial writers endorsing candidates are making, or reporters who write articles critical of politicians or businessmen or community leaders are making?
Baltimore Sun, where's the transparency?
Posted by: anon | June 30, 2011 6:46 PM
In the "spirit" of transparency, why not post the income of all the welfare recipients and the section 8 landlords? How about posting all of the money spent in sensitive areas in the county?
Posted by: jay | July 1, 2011 8:47 AM
Why are their names posted out there for every one to see. Why do we need to know their names,the info on the job title but leave their name out of it. I have looked into this and other states list by an employee number. You can figure out who the person is by their title. Lower paid employees like clerical or manual labor wouldn't be of any use except for people being nosey. It is very easy for people to use this information to open lines of credit. Your name can be searched for an address on the internet. With these times of identity theft this information should be more secure.Overtime should be posted also if everything else is "public info". If this is a good idea, lets post companies like BGE & others so it can show us what employees are paid, so we can see how much of our money is being spent on salaries. I know prople will say that the private sector is private, but the employees names are private also. I wouldn't want my name out there for the world to see and possibly have to repair my identity dur to theft.
Posted by: bee3 | July 1, 2011 10:22 AM
The salaries should be public, along with titles, but not people's names.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 1, 2011 12:58 PM
I agree with those who have already said it salaries and titles are fine. People's names should not be on it.
Posted by: rino | July 1, 2011 2:08 PM