City of Boca Raton, FL – Government salaries makeup the majority of the annual budget and most do not provide the general public with this detail. We submitted an "Open Records" request to the City of Boca Raton, Florida requesting employee salaries from 2008 – 2013. What we found will shock most people. While the private sector shrunk during this economic downturn called the "Great Recession", if you were employed with the government you saw hefty salary increases.

For government to be completely transparent we would expect them to proactively publish all their expenses so citizens can hold their elected officials accountable. At OpenTheBooks we have posted the City of Boca Raton salaries on our website and within our mobile app so citizens can easily review their salaries.

The total payroll costs for 2013 was $87,798,520.96 and for the 6 year period from 2008 – 2013 the total payroll costs were $521,797,799.34.

To put this in perspective, the highest gubernatorial salary for a sitting US governor in 2013 is Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania earning $187,256. In 2013, The City of Boca Raton had four employees who out-earned all 50 US governors. These include: Frieser, Diana G (City Attorney - $294,507.34), Ahnell, Leif J (City Manager – $283,768.63), Brown, George S (Deputy City Manager – $195,236.99) and Woika, Michael J (Assistant City Manager – $194,317.56). Additionally, we found a total of 190 employees who earned $100,000 . This is an increase of 31% over 2008. The Per Capita Personal Income in 2012 of Palm Beach County is $55,628*.

We have published the city’s entire payroll for 2008-2013 for the general public to view. To view this data on our website, click here.

Frieser, Diana G (City Attorney), had an overall increase of 13.2% from 2008-2013.

Citizens now have the data and tools to make informed decisions about how their government is operating. You can’t cut what you can’t see. You can download our mobile app for Apple and DROID (https://www.openthebooks.com/mobileapp/) where you’ll be able to view this data on your smart phone within zip code 33432.

* https://edr.state.fl.us/content/area-profiles/county/palmbeach.pdf