The best-compensated public employee in California last year was UCLA football coach Jim Mora, who made $3.57 million according to new pay data for 2016 the state controller released Tuesday.
Mora, who has a 41-24 record in his first five seasons as the Bruins’ coach, signed a contract extension in June 2016 that could pay him $3.75 million in the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
Gov. Jerry Brown, by comparison, got a raise to $190,100 in December.
The Nos. 2 and 3 spots went to two UC Berkeley coaches: basketball coach Cuonzo Martin, who earned $2.93 million; and football coach Sonny Dykes, $2.89 million.
The fourth best-paid employee was UCLA basketball coach Steve Alford, at $2.72 million.
In a prepared statement, a spokesman for UC Berkeley’s athletics department said, “Compensation for our coaches is based on a number of factors, including on-field success, academic achievement, experience and competitiveness in the market.”
While the payouts can seem breathtaking, university officials say that the sports programs they oversee are great money-makers, reputation-builders and attention-grabbers, and that the coaches more than earn their keep.
Even those who keep a hypercritical eye on public pay have trouble mustering up much righteous outrage.
“It seems obscene — but if the money’s coming from private ticket sales and not taxes and tuition, I don’t much care,” said Robert Fellner of Transparent California, which publishes public employee pay data. “It’s the part-time lecturer making $1.2 million that seems insane to me.”
California’s big-time college coaches still make less than many of their counterparts, officials pointed out. In football, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh had compensation of $9 million last year, according to USA Today’s annual tally. Alabama’s Nick Saban signed an extension in May that will pay him $11.25 million this season.
Behind the UCLA and Cal coaches on the best-paid list are dozens of physicians, psychiatrists and medical researchers at UC San Francisco, UC San Diego and UC Irvine, who earned between $1 million and $2.72 million.
All told, at least 50 public employees made more than $1 million last year, according to the controller’s data. That’s up from up from 32 in 2013.
That is still an infinitesimal fraction of all public workers in California, who number in the hundreds of thousands.
California’s public universities are on the forefront of cutting-edge science in everything from genetics to neuroscience to biotechnology, officials said. They’re in competition with far more well-heeled private institutions, and must pay well to get the best and brightest, they said.
Not long ago, detail on public pay was maddeningly difficult to acquire. But after the Bell scandal — where officials secretly paid themselves millions — transparency is now just a few mouse clicks away.
The state controller publishes extensive data — minus employee names — at publicpay.ca.gov. Individual agencies publish their own data online as well.
