The High Cost of Public Servants: Big Paychecks, Huge Pensions, and Struggling Local Services in Shasta County and Redding

One of the many things I love about living here in Shasta County is that we have a number of great talk radio programs. This past weekend, the topic of this article came up in several shows - most notably, Nick Gardner's Poke the Honet's Nest and Jefferson State of Mine - Interview with Rich Gallardo, candidate for District 1 Board of Supervisors. These discussions set some of us here at Shasta Unfiltered to work to bring you the "Rest of the Story".

Living in Shasta County or Redding is getting more expensive for regular taxpayers — and a big reason is the growing cost of public employees. Top government workers are earning compensation packages that most local families can only dream of. But that’s only part of the story. These high salaries come with very expensive lifetime pensions that taxpayers are still paying for years after these employees retire.

Shasta County Courthouse

City and county leaders often say their budgets are “balanced.” What they don’t always highlight is that millions of dollars every year are spent to pay down old pension debts, rather than fixing roads, keeping libraries open, hiring more police officers, or delivering the services residents actually need.

Data from Transparent California for 2024 shows exactly how much the highest-paid public employees received.

Important note: These total compensation numbers often include benefits, large one-time lump-sum payouts for unused vacation, sick leave, or compensatory time. These payouts are common but can make one year’s pay look much higher.

Shasta County Top 15 Highest-Paid Employees (2024)

Rank	Name	Position	Total Compensation
1	David J. Rickert	County Executive Officer	$360,618
2	Tracie L. Neal	Chief Probation Officer	$329,702
3	Stephanie Anne Bridgett	District Attorney	$310,242
4	Gene B. Randall Jr.	Undersheriff	$307,446
5	Thomas G. Schreiber	Chief Information Officer	$295,247
6	Kilee Danielle Holroyd	Detective/Deputy Sheriff	$292,978
7	Jesse Gunsauls	Captain (Sheriff’s Office)	$291,234
8	C. Troy Bartolomei	Public Works Director	$291,125
9	Laura Burch	HHSA Director	$289,934
10	Logan Q. Stonehouse	Captain (Sheriff’s Office)	$289,528
11	Cary W. Erickson	Sergeant (Sheriff’s Office)	$288,825
12	Chris H. van Eyck	Lieutenant/Captain (Sheriff’s Office)	$285,716
13	Christopher J. Edwards	Captain (Investigations, Sheriff’s Office)	$279,143
14	Michael L. Johnson	Sheriff-Coroner	$276,709
15	Robert C. Sandbloom Jr.	Sheriff’s Office	$272,891

City of Redding Top 15 Highest-Paid Employees (2024)

Rank	Name	Position	Total Compensation
1	Ronald Icely Jr	Police Captain	$662,161
2	Barry Tippin	City Manager	$589,644
3	Nicholas Zettel	Director of Electric Utility	$586,514
4	Ted Miller	Assistant Director, Electric Utility	$542,178
5	Eric McMurtrey	Deputy Fire Chief	$516,527
6	Daniel Matthews	Fire/Public Safety	$494,922
7	Brian Barner	Chief of Police	$458,040
8	Lisa Bryan	Assistant Director, Electric Utility	$444,722
9	Steve Bade	Assistant City Manager	$432,308
10	Paul Johnson	Electric Utility Manager	$427,668
11	Jerrod Vanlandingham	Fire Chief	$421,133
12	Ron Rossiter	Fire/Operations	$411,469
13	Brian Cole	Police Captain	$410,690
14	Shawn Plummer	Battalion Chief (Fire)	$410,324
15	Christopher Smyrnos	Police Captain	$398,851

For further details on the breakdown of total compensation, click here.

To understand how big these numbers really are, compare them to what the average person makes here. In Shasta County, the median household income (the middle point for families) is about $72,636 per year. In the City of Redding, it’s around $70,466. That means many of these top public employees earn in one year what it takes an average local family 5 to 9 years to earn.

Unlike most private-sector jobs (which offer 401(k) plans in which the worker bears investment risk), public employees in California receive defined-benefit pensions. These promise a guaranteed monthly check for life based on their highest-earning years. The problem is that these promises were not fully funded, leaving huge debts.

The City of Redding alone has roughly $383 million in unfunded pension liabilities. Shasta County has hundreds of millions more. Across California, the total pension debt exceeds $265 billion.

Redding City Hall

Here’s where it really hurts taxpayers: Every year, cities and counties must make large payments to chip away at this old pension debt. In Redding, these “Unfunded Liability” (UAL) payments have more than doubled in recent years. For 2025-26, the city will pay $30.6 million in pension debt service, with $18.2 million drawn directly from the General Fund. Next year, it jumps to $32.6 million total ($19.4 million General Fund).

This pension debt service is money that cannot be used for actual services. It means fewer police officers on patrol, slower emergency response times, potholed roads that stay broken longer, closed parks, and reduced library hours. Taxpayers keep paying more, but they see fewer services in return.

This cycle is not sustainable. High salaries today create even larger pension promises for tomorrow. Meanwhile, regular families struggle with 401(k)s that can rise and fall with the stock market, while public employees receive guaranteed benefits backed by taxpayers.

What Should We, the Taxpayers, Demand?

To break this cycle, taxpayers should demand that the government take drastic actions to right the ship. Things that should be on the table include: municipal bankruptcy, abolishing defined-benefit pensions in favor of 401(k)-style plans, and cutting salaries and benefits.

Each of these steps is difficult, but we need representatives who will find a way to make it happen.

• Municipal bankruptcy (Chapter 9): Legally possible. Cities like Stockton, Vallejo, and San Bernardino have done it after a required mediation process or by declaring a fiscal emergency. In theory, a bankruptcy court could cut pension obligations. In practice, pensions were rarely touched — CalPERS fought hard, and the cities chose not to cut core pensions to avoid lawsuits and political backlash. It’s doable but extremely painful: credit ratings tank, services suffer more, and it doesn’t solve the root problem in the long term.

• Abolishing defined-benefit pensions and converting to 401(k)-style plans: Almost impossible for current employees and retirees. The “California Rule” (upheld by the state Supreme Court in cases like Cal Fire 2019 and Alameda County 2020) treats pensions as vested contractual rights that cannot be reduced or eliminated without providing comparable new benefits. Only new hires can get lower-benefit tiers (as PEPRA did in 2013). Switching everyone out of CalPERS entirely would likely require a constitutional amendment approved by voters — a massive political lift that has never succeeded. However, we should consider adopting a Charter Amendment that mandates that all new hires are not covered by CalPERS, but are instead enrolled in a traditional 401(k)-type retirement program.

• Reducing salaries and benefits: The most realistic option, but still limited. For new hires, cities and counties have more flexibility. For current employees, reductions require good-faith bargaining with unions under the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act. You can reach an impasse and impose terms, but this often leads to lawsuits, strikes, or arbitration. Overtime rules and future raises can be tightened, but you cannot retroactively claw back already-earned benefits.

Shasta County and Redding residents deserve honest answers. “Balanced budgets” mean very little when pension debt is quietly swallowing up money that should be going to the services we actually need. Real change is extremely difficult under current California law. Still, without serious discussions about transparency, tighter bargaining, and long-term reform, the cost of public servants will continue to bury local budgets and squeeze the very services these high-paid employees are supposed to deliver.