This deputy police chief was California's highest-paid public employee in 2025

Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times on Jul 11, 2026

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LOS ANGELES — A former Redlands deputy police chief topped California's public payroll in 2025, taking home $1.26 million in total compensation — more than the combined salaries of the mayors of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, state compensation data show.

According to the state controller's office, the former deputy chief received $1.2 million in total wages, including $890,467 in "other pay" and $231,099 in accrued sick and vacation pay, in addition to $81,804 in regular salary.

The city of Redlands also contributed $55,864 toward the former employee's retirement and health benefits, bringing the final compensation to about $1.26 million.

By comparison, the combined compensation of the mayors of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego is about $1.2 million, including retirement and health benefits, according to the data.

A spokesperson for the Redlands Police Department could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

The news about the Redlands employee, first reported by rhe San Bernardino Sun, came to light last month following the state controller's scheduled publication of city-level compensation data.

The controller's office began tracking the salaries of public employees in 2010 amid the revelation that leaders in the working-class town of Bell in southeast Los Angeles County were receiving some of the largest salaries in the country.

Since then, the state agency has been collecting and publishing the compensation data of more than 2 million workers across more than 5,000 public agencies — including special districts, universities and state departments.

In publishing the data, the agency provides a snapshot of the highest-paid employees in the state, though it does not identify workers by name. After the Redlands deputy police chief, the second-highest-paid employee in 2025 was a Los Angeles Fire Department battalion chief, followed by a transmission and distribution supervisor with the L.A. Department of Water and Power, according to the data.

Although the state agency does not identify the employees, Transparent California, a nonprofit database of public employee pay, identified the Redlands worker as Travis Martinez.

According to Redlands' city records and The Redlands News, Martinez retired last April as part of a $871,956 settlement agreement related to a whistle-blower claim against the city.

Martinez could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.