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Private sector a world apart

By Amy Gingerich/Staff Writer

Private- and public-sector jobs always have differed, whether in salary, benefits or overall responsibilities.

Some jobs can be compared equally, like those of managers who oversee a similar number of people, while others, like firefighters, just can't. Plus jobs can be compared in limitless ways. Salaries, benefits and responsibilities each can be examined differently. Some in the private sector may have great salaries but poor benefits, which makes it difficult to categorize who has the best deal.

There are those making enough in the public sector to live very comfortably, but their salary is nowhere close to similar positions in the private sector.

Take Michael Johnson, for example. As Solano County's manager and chief administrative officer, Johnson's base salary, at $143,280 this year and $150,444 next year is nowhere near the $1.6 million that Genentech's CEO takes home or the $1.2 million Chiron's CEO makes annually. Yet each of the top officials at Genentech, Chiron and Solano County essentially oversee and manage between 3,200 to 3,400 employees.

When Genentech, Chiron and other private-sector corporations hire people, each uses a centralized hiring process. In the public sector some employees are voted in by the electorate, others are appointed and some come through the centralized human resources offices.

"The real difference between the private and public sector is that of my 3,200 employees, some are elected, some are appointed by myself (and) some are appointed by agencies," Johnson said. The differences in how people find their way into county employment means that benefits

and managerial procedures differ as well.

Johnson manages a $457 million annual operating budget, which puts the county on a level playing field with large corporations.

"In the private (sector) you have a much more structured organization," Johnson continued.

The procedural layers to implement change at the county level can be overwhelming and nothing happens right away. That wouldn't necessarily be the case in the private sector.

"They could accomplish those changes and almost implement them overnight. Obviously it takes longer here. You need more buy-in from elected officials and agencies," Johnson said.

Norman Repanich, former president of the Solano Economic Development Corp. and just retired as economic development director for the city of Rio Vista, said overall responsibilities differ, too.

"Your responsibilities are greater in the sense that you have a broader base of members," Repanich said, citing the fact that public employees must ultimately be accountable to everyone while private-sector employees need to be accountable to their bosses or the company's board of directors. Yet, managers and city councilmembers all help to create a cushion of responsibility in the public sector so that one person isn't ultimately responsible.

"In our case, the boss ultimately is the voters, the taxpayers," Johnson said.

After Gary Tatum spent the majority of his working career in the Vacaville Police Department, he switched to the private sector and became the president and chief executive officer of the Vacaville Chamber of Commerce. He knows the good and bad of both sectors but said his job as a manager is essentially the same now as it was as police chief.

"I know right now that I'm not making as much as I did working for the public," Tatum said.

Tatum started working in law enforcement in 1958 with a gross monthly salary of $418. He said he would have been amazed to know then that as police chief he would eventually make $80,000 to $90,000 annually.

The chamber is a nonprofit organization, and Tatum said his salary now depends on the number of members and the amount of money it brings in annually.

Now that he's working for a small nonprofit he's also finding less support staff because the chamber just doesn't have as much money to spend as the city. Ultimately that means the CEO still answers the phone on occasion.

"One of the problems I've always had in the public sector is that it doesn't really regard individual merit as much as in the private sector," Tatum said.

He cited as an example the five or six people with essentially the same job for the city. They all receive the same base salary regardless of previous job experience. Tatum said he's never been a fan of longevity pay because it only rewards productivity and experience for someone's current job.

"The whole issue with income in this nation is on a slant I think," Tatum continued.

He cited the fact that teachers and school administrators make far less than others.

"Vaca High's principal is essentially a department head, yet (isn't) on a pay scale similar to other (city) department heads," Tatum said. He also said some who work for the United States military receive food stamps because their salaries just aren't enough to survive on.

"It's a slap at our whole society. On the other hand, you pay some athlete a million dollars to entertain us," Tatum said.

While overall policies and salaries can be compared, some jobs can't.

"People in the private sector tend to think that people in the public sector don't do the job right. You can't compare the fire department to anybody else. There's a lot of differences," Tatum said.