Opinion: Public Service Should Mean Serving the Public - Not Getting Rich Off It

While a student at Stanford in the early 1980s, I served as a U.S. Coast Guard reservist at Station Fort Point in San Francisco. As a Second Class Boatswain's Mate doing search and rescue on the Bay, I learned that public service is supposed to be about duty and putting the public first - not about securing sky-high salaries and ironclad pensions.

That lesson feels increasingly forgotten in California today. In San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi and her husband got rich off inside information she gathered as an important member of Congress. It may be legal, but it's not right, and we all know it. Even Pelosi fans admit that they're uncomfortable with Nancy and Paul retiring on $588,000,000.

This year, San Francisco municipal employees gained the formal right to strike. At the same time, many city workers and executives earn compensation packages that most taxpayers can only dream of. In San Francisco, numerous employees - particularly in public safety and management - routinely earn between $200,000 to $350,000+ in total compensation per year when overtime and benefits are included.

Just look at Los Angeles: The head of the Department of Water and Power, Janisse Quiñones, was approved for a staggering $750,000 annual salary - nearly twice what her predecessor made. How exactly was she worth three-quarters of a million dollars a year when she left the reservoirs empty during the Palisades Fire? Nero fiddled and LA burned.

Meanwhile, the median household income in San Francisco is around $140,000–$147,000. That means many public employees are earning two to five times what the average family in the city makes. Public servants deserve to be paid, and paid fairly. But in California, this is getting out of hand for some civil servants in some job classifications.

When government salaries and benefits spiral into the stratosphere while basic services - homelessness response, street cleanliness, and public safety - continue to deteriorate, we have a serious problem of accountability and incentives.

Comparison of public salaries in San Francisco to New York City.

Taxpayers are being asked to pay more and more, yet they see visible failure on the streets every day. Adding the new right to strike for city workers only increases the leverage unions have over taxpayers who have no such power.

I am not suggesting public employees should be poorly paid. Good people deserve fair compensation. But when top public servants earn $400,000, $600,000, or even $750,000 while the results for citizens remain poor, something is fundamentally broken.

As a candidate for Congress, I believe we need real reform: Greater transparency and accountability on total compensation packages (salary + overtime + pensions). Compensation more closely tied to measurable performance and results. A return to the idea that public service is a noble calling - not a guaranteed path to upper-class wealth at taxpayer expense.

The men and women I served with in the Coast Guard didn't join for the money. They joined to serve something bigger than themselves. That spirit should be the standard - not six- and seven-figure compensation packages while San Francisco struggles with basic governance.

It's time to restore balance and common sense in public service.

David Ganezer is the longtime publisher of the Santa Monica Observer and the Republican candidate for California's 11th Congressional District. Donate to the Campaign here.