$7430.65 Performance Bonus in 2006 for Claremont Information SNAFU Manager

Saturday's Claremont Courier had a page 3 article on Paystubgate which was teased on Page 1 with the headline, "Payroll SNAFU explained". It seemed a little curious for "SNAFU" to appear in all caps until we were reminded of the etymology of "SNAFU". It is apparently, or perhaps apocryphally, an acronym derived from a phrase going something like, "Situation Normal, All Fouled Up". Since this is a family blog, we think we will leave it at that.

The article in the Courier (which regrettably is not on the Courier website or we'd link to it) adds a little to the earlier Daily Bulletin article. For one thing, it says that the City has no intention of making the report on this, well, SNAFU, public:

"The experts have requested that the report not be released due to the fact that the information in the report could create security threats to our computer system," said [City Manager] Mr. [Jeff] Parker, citing the report's detailed examination of the city's security practices.

"It's definitely their choice. There is a lot of information in those reports that could compromise security going forward," said Michael Fitzpatrick of NCX [a computer security consultant hired by the city to investigate the incident].

Excuse us?

Do the hypersensitive antennae of the Insider detect a common Claremont ploy at play here? Parker blames the "expert" for hiding the ball. The expert says that hiding the ball is the City's decision. Did somebody not get the memo?

(You don't have to go too far back in city history, say to the October 9th Council meeting, to hear about a similar two-step concerning information on the Palmer Canyon fire settlement.)

We are wondering what the California government code says about this. We suspect someone will be making a public records request for this report, because we know there are scads and scads of people wanting to see it. You'd think if NCX and the City of Claremont have built an impenetrable system, they'd want people to know it.

Steve Senkle, Claremont's Information SNAFU Manager, was quoted in the Courier article, "It won't be possible in the future for this mistake of the confidential records being made available because our confidential database will not be connected to the Internet". There you have it. Can't happen. Won't happen. Believe it. This time.

By the way, Steve Senkle is another of Claremont's $200,000 Men. In 2006, his total earnings including allowances, vacation, sick and other compensation amounted to $126.563.38. He received a remarkable $7430.65 performance bonus, amounting to more than 9.1% of his regular pay. His benefits were a staggering $78,296.80. His total compensation through 12/22/06 for 2006: $204,860.18. Not bad for a computer guy with a broken system.

[note: the emphases in the quotes above by Parker and Fitzpatrick were added by us. See here for another example of the Claremont two-step.]

Oh, for an interesting image still up on Google, click here. Don't blame us, Sonia. We've reformed, as you see. Take it up with Google.