Website gives quick access to government information

MAT-SU — It’s probably best just to let the man who made the decision explain why Mat-Su Borough salaries are now available online in an easy-to-use database.

“Personnel is one of the biggest costs of government and it isn’t always bad. And what we’re trying to do with the database is we’re trying to make it easier for people to see where the money is going in their local government and make decisions for themselves,” said Jeremy Thompson, director of Alaska Policy Forum.

Looking at peoples’ paychecks doesn’t generally make a person popular. Thompson said a lot of government organizations aren’t keen on participating in this kind of project. But he commended the borough for its transparency.

“The Mat-Su borough government was very cooperative,” he said.

The idea behind the database, he said, is to give taxpayers an accurate look at what public servants make so those taxpayers can decide what’s worth the money and what isn’t.

The database isn’t the first one the organization has put together. That title belongs to the database tracking salaries and benefits of Anchorage municipal employees. Next up, Thompson said, will be a database of Anchorage School District employees. There are plans for a Mat-Su version of that one as well. Then, who knows?

“It’s our goal to expand it as needed,” Thompson said. “We want to be a resource. That’s what the Alaska Policy Forum is all about — resources for policy-makers and taxpayers.”

But the forum doesn’t plan to just toss the information out and sit back and do nothing.

“We’re going to come up with a set of very straightforward recommendations, policy recommendations for the borough on how they can make this information better. That probably won’t come out for another month or two,” Thompson said.

So, what do the numbers show?

There are a few flaws in the data readily identifiable to anyone familiar with the borough. For one thing, it appears on first blush as if the five more senior borough assembly members are pulling in six times what their most recently elected colleagues take in.

That’s exactly the issue — the data only shows a part of what Noel Woods and Warren Keogh would make in a year, since they were only elected in October.

Still, it’s noteworthy that the assembly probably isn’t crying crocodile tears when its members point out that the job doesn’t pay much. The $13,000 and change each member makes is equivalent to a part-time job at best.

There also aren’t listings for relatively visible borough employees. For instance Richard Stockdale, the Animal Care and Regulation boss who’s only been on the job since January, isn’t listed. But, again, that’s a timing issue.

Thompson said that in his experience with the Anchorage database, one of the problems that sometimes arises with these types of projects is that certain employees will be listed twice. Which, to the public, might imply the employee is being paid double. Often, though, that’s just a matter of the person switching jobs.

Some of those problems will be fixed in future updates. Thompson said the goal is to update the data once a year.

To view the database of borough salaries, visit alaskapolicyforum.org/resources/matsu/homepayroll

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.