BY ELAINE GOODMAN
Daily Post Correspondent
Five Santa Clara County employees made more than $1 million each in total pay last year — all of them physicians at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
The top-paid county employee in 2023 was Dr. Don Hoang, a plastic surgeon who made $1.16 million in total pay. The second- and third-highest paid county employees were two radiologists: Dr. Mahesh Patel, who made $1.14 million, and Dr. Long N. Trinh, who made $1.13 million.
Also among the five top-paid county employees were Dr. Yvonne Karanas, a plastic surgeon who made $1.05 million at her county job and Dr. Justin F. Lucas, an orthopedic surgeon who made $1.02 million.
The pay figures are from Transparent California, which gets the data through public record requests to cities and counties.
In San Mateo County, in contrast, the top-paid worker was a sheriff’s deputy: David Spinello, whose total pay was $578,009 in 2023. Spinello’s pay consisted of $159,956 in regular pay, $390,869 in overtime pay and $27,183 in “other pay.”
Transparent California doesn’t specify the source of the “other pay,” but said it may include payments such as vacation time cash-outs or car and housing allowances.
Total pay doesn’t include the amount the county pays for worker benefits, such as contributions for health coverage or retirement benefits. In Spinello’s case, San Mateo County paid $134,782 for the deputy’s benefits.
San Mateo County’s second-highest paid employee last year was medical director Katalin Szabo, whose total pay was $528,696. In the No. 3 spot was supervising adult psychiatrist Zachary Plaut, who made $505,847.
He was followed by Sheriff Christina Corpus, who made $466,058 in total pay last year. That included $353,850 in regular pay and $112,207 in other pay.
The five Santa Clara County physicians who made more than $1 million at their county jobs last year didn’t get any overtime pay, but more than 40% of their total pay in each case was from “other pay.”
In addition to the five doctors in the million-dollar club, Santa Clara County had nine physician employees whose total pay was in the $900,000s last year.
In contrast to the physician pay, Santa Clara County’s top executive, James Williams, made $439,835 in total pay in 2023.
District attorney Jeff Rosen made $403,662, and Sheriff Robert Jonsen made $334,404. Dr. Sara Cody, the public health officer who guided Santa Clara County’s response to Covid-19, made $277,527 in 2023.
In San Mateo County, county executive Mike Callagy’s total pay was $460,435 in 2023, while District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe made $382,692.
Santa Clara County is more than twice the size of San Mateo County in terms of population. In 2022, the counties had 1.871 residents and 729,181 residents, respectively.
i dont even make .025% of that. people make to much money, when real people bust there butt everyday
Your tax dollars hard at work
These are the same doctors who had a strike a few years ago. I guess it worked.