Top Paid City Workers in Warwick and Cranston
Friday, October 07, 2011
They are Rhode Island’s second and third largest cities behind Providence, and a review of the salaries paid to top Warwick and Cranston municipal employees shows that some may surprise you. As more and more Rhode Islanders call for less big government, and cuts in spending, GoLocalProv takes a look at who makes the most money among each City’s top municipal employees.
Bigger Cities = Bigger Costs
This analysis utilizes data from the Rhode Island Department of Revenue’s 2010 Municipal Salary Survey, and looks at municipal employee positions that include: Chief Executive, School Superintendent, Police Chief, Fire Chief, Finance Director, School Business Manager, Public Works Director, Personnel Director, Planning Director, Purchasing Agent, Tax Collector, City Clerk, and more.
Overall, it’s not surprising that higher salaries come from the state’s larger cities. After all, each of these cities has higher annual budgets than every community with the exception of Providence. According to the survey, the top-15 highest paid municipal positions in Warwick were all paid in excess of $82,000 in 2010. Currently, all but one of these positions is filled. In Cranston, the figures are slightly lower, with its top-15 positions all receiving more than $60,000. If you look at the top earners, Warwick has eight municipal employees topping $100,000, while Cranston has half as many.
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Surprising to many is who in each city pulls in the highest annual salary. While many would guess Mayor Avedisian and Mayor Fung to be their respective city’s highest paid employee, each are trumped by a number of individuals.
In Cranston, the honor of the highest paid employee goes to Peter Nero, the city’s Superintendent of Schools, at $140,730. This also holds true in Warwick, where Superintendent Peter P. Horoschak receives $158,499. In fact, across the board in Rhode Island, school superintendents tend to be the highest paid municipal employees. School Business Managers, often referred to as each district’s Chief Financial Officer, are also well-represented on each list. Warwick’s School Business Manager, Anthony Ferrucci, is paid $111,770 annually, while Cranston’s Joseph A. Balducci pulls in $104,258. These salaries, however, are not set by the city’s Chief Executives.
“The salaries of the two school officials on the list are set by the School Committee,” explains Susan Baker, Press Secretary for the City of Warwick. “By City Charter, neither the Mayor nor Council can dictate how School Department funds are spent – that is the sole authority of the School Committee.”
The Best of the Rest
In each city, the Fire and Police Chief take up the second and third highest paid slots. Warwick Fire Chief Edmund Armstrong is paid $119,092 while his Cranston counterpart, William McKenna, is compensated slightly less at $118,447.
“The Fire Chief has been an employee of the Warwick Fire Department, and has risen through the ranks during his 31-year career,” said Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian. “Although when I took office I could have made political appointments, I chose instead to retain individuals who have worked for years to accumulate institutional knowledge and understand the inner workings of their departments, which, I believe, better serves our citizens and business community.”
Warwick’s Chief of Police, Colonel Stephen M. McCartney, who spent a number of years with the Providence Police, is paid $115,329. He was hired by Avedisian’s predecessor, and has spent more than 13 years serving Warwick. In Cranston, Police Chief Marco Palumbo, Jr. receives $113,810. The City Council committee that reviews mayoral appointments unanimously endorsed Mayor Fung’s selection of Palumbo in 2009.
In Warwick, Finance Director Ernie Zmyslinski is the city’s fourth highest paid employee with an annual salary of $113,742, while Cranston’s Finance Director, Robert Strom, takes home $95,000 as his City’s fifth highest paid employee. Despite how this compensation may look on the surface, Dan Beardsley, Executive Director of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, indicates they are noticeably less than those found in the private sector when you consider the scope of responsibilities.
“To me, the best way to illustrate the importance of these positions is to view each Finance Director as, in essence, the CFO of multi-million dollar corporations,” he explains.
Cranston has an annual budget of $233 million, while Warwick’s is $280 million.
“If you’re trying to recruit someone from the private sector, or someone who is used to making a strong salary, and you’re offering less, you are not going to be able to attract the type of qualified person the council feels is necessary to do the job appropriately,” continued Beardsley.
The role of each City’s Public Works Department is to operate and maintain public facilities, and ensure that the Police and Fire Departments adhere to public safety requirements. David Picozzi is the Director of Warwick’s efforts, and receives $ 112,898 annually, while David Ventetuolo serves as Cranston’s Acting Director at a salary of $90,000. In an effort to save funds, Cranston has implemented Interim Directors for certain departments, including Public Works.
“Interim Directors receive a differential in pay for the added responsibilities they’ve assumed, but even with this, there is a strong savings for the City by not having a full-time person in that role,” commented Cranston Mayor Allan Fung. “As much as these positions are desperately needed to lead crucial departments, we are doing more with less in an attempt to cut back. Due to City Charter provisions, the Public Works Director needs to be a professional engineer. The salary that we offer is relatively low when compared with what the Charter indicates the position’s requirements are.”
Underpaid Mayors?
In comparison with the annual compensation doled out to some of Cranston and Warwick’s highest paid municipal employees, the salaries of each City’s Chief Executive barely cracks the top-10. In fact, more than half of Rhode Island’s Mayors are paid more than Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, who receives $80,765 annually. By contrast, Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian is paid $100,000. Each is their respective City’s eighth highest paid employee. The Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns sheds light on these differences.
“Compensation for Chief Executives varies greatly due to the methodology of how they are determined. Many are set by charter and some prohibit increases while in office,” explains Beardsley. “This is why you sometimes find higher annual salaries for Mayors in the smaller communities that you wouldn’t expect.”
Attracting Top Talent
Despite eight of Warwick’s top-10 highest paid employees raking in more than $100,000 annually, and four of Cranston’s top-10 paid similarly, are the cities challenged with attracting top talent to fill vacancies?
“These City positions are highly-specialized,” points out Beardsley. “In order to attract the best qualified applicant, you need to make the investment. You need to be able to attract the people who have the requisite experience to properly continue operations.”
For Cranston, despite its size and budget volume, this can sometimes present a challenge.
“Many of my staff’s counterparts, even in smaller towns, make more than some of my directors,” said Mayor Fung. “It presents a challenge in making sure I have good people in place and the ability to maintain them. I’m comfortable to say that we’re doing the best we can with limited resources. Of course, in better times, we’ll look to replace Interim Directors with full-time, permanent staff, but savings is the key right now.”
Cut-Backs & Salary Freezes
While many are sure to look at the compensation for top employees and call for reductions in pay and freezes in salary, each community claims to have taken widespread action to reduce costs. According to Mayor Avedisian, Warwick union and management employees have made numerous concessions to help stabilize the city’s finances.
“In order to help us withstand cuts in state aid for two fiscal years, municipal employees agreed to furlough days, uniform allowance give ups, wage freezes and other reductions – all of which were agreed to outside of the scope of existing contracts – saving additional funding over and above the $10 million savings realized in those contracts.”
The $10 million in savings referenced by Avedisian relates to the union contracts negotiated two years ago, which include concessions “even with the pay raises” that are expected to save the city millions over the terms of the agreement. At the same time, non-union employees have not received raises for the past several years. This year, small increases were proposed and approved when the City Council passed its budget. Another area where Warwick has taken action is with longevity salary increases.
“Nine of the people on the list were in their positions prior to my election as Mayor,” added Avedisian. “As a result, they are eligible for longevity, which results in an increase of their salary. In 2004, by Executive Order, I eliminated longevity for all non-union employees hired subsequent to July 1 of that year.”
Another area where Warwick has saved money is in its Tax Office, where the Tax Collector also serves as Tax Assessor. “By combining these two positions, the City has realized salary and benefit savings for several years,” explained Avedisian.
Additionally, the position of Management Information Systems Director is currently vacant and has been budgeted at $0. Until his recent retirement, Dean Kosaka served as MIS Director, and at more than $95,000 annually, was one of Warwick’s highest paid employees.
In Cranston, there has been much of the same. Mayor Fung is quick to point out that since taking office his administration has not received any increases in salary.
“Since I became Mayor, the City has been in expense watching mode,” stated Fung. “I’ve made cuts in every single department. It was important to demonstrate that leadership was on board with making concessions to share the sacrifice. I’ve also enacted a 25% co-share on health benefits that further cut costs.”
Staff layoffs were done during Mayor Fung’s first year in office. Since then, each budget has included additional expenditure cuts to personnel.
“I must constantly watch our expenses and be cautious with how many people are on staff and how many are needed. Whether it’s consolidating work among groups, or reducing full-time positions to part-time, I’m looking for savings wherever I can,” finished Fung.
So, Are Salaries Out of Line?
For some, the cuts made to personnel compensation have not been enough. Representative Robert Jacquard, a Democrat who serves District 17 in Cranston and has been a member of the House of Representatives for 19 years, is “dismayed” at the high price tags.
“In my entire time as a Representative, I’ve never seen a single high salary job eliminated,” commented Jacquard. “Efforts are made to save funds and reduce the workforce, but always end up being the people that do the day-to-day work, and not the people at the top. When you have decisions being made by people who have an eye on saving their own jobs, this is the unfortunate consequence.”
According to Jacquard, another reason as to why salaries have reached their current levels has to do with the fact that raises are given as a percentage of pay.
“Typically, when raises are negotiated, even at 3%, and applied to higher salaries, the gap quickly widens in comparison with how raises affect lower salary positions,” he explained. “For some employees, particularly those with longevity, their salary can double every 26 years. This is why I am a big proponent of eliminating percentage raises and instead only allowing for flat amounts that represent a cost of living increase.”
Representative Jacquard also feels that percentage and longevity raises have had a big impact on the pension system. “When people are able to nearly double their salary over the years, they’re eligible for greater funds once they retire. These gaps in pay are unjustified and unfair. We can’t keep going in this direction.”
Not everyone agrees that municipal employee salaries are out of whack. Republican Representative Joseph Trillo, who represents Warwick, feels that in order to have qualified people in charge of crucial departments, you need to pay accordingly.
“We’re talking about people who have served the City of Warwick for a long time, and if you look at the great deal of responsibilities they have, and the quality of work they provide, no, I don’t think they make too much. Of course, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t other areas where Warwick could save money.”
Source: Municipal Salary Survey - Department of Revenue
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