Evan Smith Explains Why the Trib Publishes Pay
We've started to get calls — one here, one there; more a trickle than a flood — from chagrined teachers around Texas who've discovered that when they Google themselves, the first thing that comes up is their salary information in our database of public employee pay. And they don't much like it. They think we've somehow violated their privacy or, worse, put them at risk of harm to life and limb. Not surprisingly, they want to us to remove them from the database immediately.
Other kinds of public employees have called too. I just hung up with the ...
Comments (20)
taxpayerwife
The truth of the matter is, whether or not this information is available to any or all who take the time to obtain it, this database is a violation. This is not transparency nor is it open government. This is not created by altruism. This database is created to be a violation of individuals. You state that you even published your salary; perhaps you did. The difference being you chose to do so; this database is not created by those listed, it created by you to exploit those individuals. You have violated the privacy of every single one of the employees, all under the guise of journalism and education. You state that you wish to do is to create informed citizens, perhaps the first step is not alienating those same citizens. You are not public employess, You do not work for the "people". You are in the business of telling what you chose and how you chose to see it. You wanted to upset people and create the uproar that will commence to follow. That is not news, that is watercooler gossip. To defend your database with the above is nearly as disgraceful as the database information. Just because the information is available and legal to obtain, it does not mean that it is ethical to present. And yes, I understand that as long as this drives hits to your site; you will not take it down or alter it so that its less a violation. That is disgraceful.
gov_watchdog
Thanks, Texas Tribune, for doing the Good Work. We need to always strive to increase transparency, hold people accountable and remember that solid information is the key to understanding and ensuring that our government works in the best interest of the people.
Taxpayerwife, you need to take a good, hard look at yourself and think about what this country would be like if there weren't access to such information. The Texas Public Information Act, which is what allows the Tribune to gather such information, is weak at best, but it protects our ability -- yes, yours and mine -- to ensure that our government is working in our interest. My best guess is that you're a public employee who is likely in that database. If you don't want your employment information made public, it's best you not collect a government paycheck -- that's your choice.
Again, Trib, thanks for the solid work.
Cicely Wynne via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Most are embarrassingly low. I think most people would rather see top oil exec salaries - shamefully high and wasteful.
sherb
Transparency schmanparency. There's no good reason to publish people's names in this kind of database. All of your aims can be well-achieved by a database that contains only positions, agencies, and salaries. There's absolutely no reason to publish people's names along with their salaries. No, it's not rape. But it's humiliating. It's an invasion of privacy. Just because you're allowed to do it doesn't mean you should. Just because it's available doesn't make it ok to publish it in a searchable database.
You can also get teachers' addresses and phone numbers from TEA (it's considered public information). Are you going to publish those in a database as well? Don't we all have a right to know how many teachers actually live in the districts they teach in? Isn't satisfying that curiosity worth the harm that could come from giving some stalker or disgruntled and disturbed kid who got an F the directions to their victim's home? I'll be waiting for that database to come online.
Being a public employee doesn't make someone a public person. If you take out the names, then I'll believe that you're actually after transparency. If you don't, then it's obvious that this is mostly just juicy gossip.
Narissa Johnson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The concept of 'privacy' as we thought of it in the past is no longer. If you aren't posting anything about yourself, then you may have a little more privacy, but even then you are pretty exposed (cell phones, email addresses, credit card use, etc).
And the comparison of having a salary posted online to a rape is not only ridiculous; it is also inflammatory & disrespectful. One is the dissemination of information and the other a physical crime rooted in the need to have power and control over another person.
Bob Brown via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Narissa, I think you need to look up the definition of rape, there are more general definitions which actually very well could express what she may have felt.
Andrew Busey via Texas Tribune on Facebook
If you don't want your employment data to be public, don't work for the public.
Jesus B Ochoa via Texas Tribune on Facebook
What is rape if not power and control? Love gone wrong?
Get real.
Bob Brown via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Yes Andrew good point and one would think so obvious.
John Jordan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The excruciatingly skeevy story ABC broke about the porn-obsessed SEC guys --11 of whom were making in excess of $200k -- illustrates the need for all the Vitamin D we can summon. It's also instructive for any organization to realize where the most meaningful cuts can be made: for example, when the bonehead triumvirate mandated the politburo style, across-the-board 5% cuts in TX agencies, a rational place to look for cuts might have been with the top echelon -- NOT the services provided, or the the rank and file gummit workers who actually serve the public. I'm not pollocking, I'm just saying: there's a lot of money being paid, very often for no great reason, and being able to access that data -- easily -- is a good place to start.
taxpayerwife
To gov_watchdog, there is no point, absolutely no point whatsoever in posting the names of each employee. That is not transparency, that is an invasion upon the privacy of these employees. If someone is so curious, they can themselves get to this information as the Texas Public Information Act allows. What was not envisioned was a web-based database with all and every employee's name listed. And, yes, being an employee of a government agency, is not the same as being an official voted into a position of power. You claim to be so concerned about transparency and open-government, how does this fulfill that need? I agree with sherb, remove the names. Leave the rest, but the act of naming each employee is invasive and unethical. And, no, gov-watchdog, I am not an employee. But I am a taxpayer, and a concerned citizen of Texas. However, I do not see how this is helpful or useful other than to create a hostile enviroment.
Bob Brown via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I think we are missing a major point here. If you look at that database seven of the top ten salaries where for people in the Atheletics dept. in State Universities.
William Pate II
Eh, this is no different from the military pay scale.
You know a person's rank, roughly his/her time in service and you know how much he/she makes via a two-second Google search.
It's public information (as is every e-mail you send from a state computer).
I applaud the Tribune.
bstone08
i appreciate your data apps and public records stories, but you should post the salaries of all of your employees and writers by name. since you are "effectively, public employees." and when you post them, announce it on the front page like you do when you release a new batch of government salaries.
David Turner via Texas Tribune on Facebook
as a state employee i wonder why the state budget is in such bad shape. Texans were told by their elected officials for the last couple of years that this state was in better shape than the rest of the country. now, during campaigns for high office, we're suddently 8 billion, no-10 billion-no 16 billion, or is it 8 billion short. whos' counting the money and what are they doing with it? the costs have certainly not increased when it comes to front line public services. wages have certainly not increased when it comes to front line public servants. and for those front line employees, insurance costs have gone up while those services have been cut back. and we have been notified that there will be further cost increases and service cuts in this area. so where is the overrun and why is it happening? i work for the state and i would like to find out.If I ran my operating budget in this fashion i would probably be in jail or at least under investigation.....
Dianne Stewart via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The only drawback with "transparency" in the form of pulished lists of numbers is that they don't have any contextual information. Yes, this information must be publically available, but those who, like the Tribune, are in a position to help people understand the meaning of the numbers should not merely reproduce the data. If you are going to publicize them, provide a analytical context for them. True government transaparency also helps people understand what the goals of pulblic structures and systems are and how well we are progressing toward those goals.We have come to think of accountability as "gotcha" journalism and justice. We need accountability to be tied to aspirations for a public sector that is a steward of the common good and an architect of broadly shared quality of life.
skins96
taxpayerwife: A violation of what? Privacy? To what specific right of privacy are you referring? The public policy of this country, and its courts, have long dismissed privacy claims like this as bunk.
The very foundation of this self-government we have is that all political power is inherent in the people. That means the people, to be fully informed about *THEIR* government have the right to know how every single dollar is spent. Guess what? You can request a copy of your public body's check register and they have to give it to you under state law.
When you're a public employee, you work for the people. Plain and simple. Doesn't the boss have a right to know what their employees are making?
I urge you to take a look at how governments show their organizational charts in Florida. Note who is at the top: http://www.oppaga.state.fl.us/government/storgchart.asp
jjj
Does the Tribune know that, when they publish a faculty member's salary, they are publishing the 12 month rate, but the State only really pays 9 months? The rest comes from the faculty member's grants or consulting work.
In addition, it's rare that the state actually picks up the entire faculty's pay. Some of it comes from grant overhead or other funds. If I would hazard a guess, I would imagine that, in many cases, the state is actually only paying no more than 50% of a stated faculty member's salary.
jday6
Maybe your last line should have been your first!
rightthingtodoTX
i agree with what's being said about disclosing names. it's not necessary to the achieve the alleged goal of the database.
aside from all the badness inherent in posting names of people as properly noted by taxpayerwife & sherb, posting names also does two very important things for the tribune
1. gets readers
2. keeps the ego of mr. smith inflated - missing the "cred" from TM evie?