When Gov. Jerry Brown took office in 2011, one of his first acts was to make state employees give back their sweet government cellphones and state cars.
The savings was a drop in the bucket, given the state's massive budget, but Brown was sending a message: This is the people's work, not the private sector. That can be easy to forget in a culture where the median CEO pay now tops $10 million. Sometimes white-collar public servants need a reminder.