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LA Controller Reveals Highest Paid City Officials

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The city workforce shrank by about 266 full-time employees during the first quarter of the year, according to an updated salary database released Tuesday by the City Controller.

The General Manager of the Los Angeles World Airports, Gina Marie Lindsey, was the highest paid city employee, earning an annual salary of $326,856. Police Chief Charlie Beck was a near second, earning $307,291 per year.

Deputy Mayor for Economic and Business Policy Matt Karatz takes in the lowest salary at $1 per year.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa earns an annual salary of $232,436.

The city had 36,482 full-time employees at the end of March, which total about $2.9 billion.

"Our salary database is an important tool in providing transparency and openness about how our taxpayers dollars are spent," Controller Wendy Greuel said. "In these difficult times I believe that it is important to be extremely open with this information so that Angelenos can feel confident their tax dollars are being spent reasonably."

Greuel made the data public in the wake of a salary scandal in Bell, where the former city manager and elected officials have been criminally charged for giving themselves grossly inflated salaries and benefits. Robert Rizzo, the former city manager, was getting about $1 million in salary and benefits before he was fired.

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