Top 25 Highest Paid Municipal Bureaucrats
Monday, January 02, 2012
The 25 highest paid chief executives or department heads in Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns will all earn at least $138,000 in 2012, according to the 2011 municipal salary survey issued by the state Department of Revenue.
The group, which is made up of school superintendents, mayors or town administrators, a water official and a finance director, will combine to make over $3.77 million during the year.
At the top of the list is Providence’s acting superintendent, Dr. Susan Lusi, who took over on an interim basis last summer and makes $190,000 according to the survey. The only non-superintendent in the top seven is the position of Providence Water Official, which is currently occupied on an interim basis by Boyce Spinelli, who took over last month after Pam Marchand resigned. The salary for the position in 2011 was $175,685.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTNearly 80 percent of the list is made up of school superintendents, which raises questions about whether the state should look into regionalization as a way of potentially reducing costs for cash-strapped communities.
Regionalization an Option
The state has looked toward a consolidation of services in the past, and proponents of the plan say regionalized school districts could save cities and towns millions of dollars each year. But any action toward regionalization has been slow moving.
In 2009, the State Senate formed to study the sharing of services among Rhode Island municipalities, recommending the state’s cities and towns begin working on efforts to share services like information technology infrastructures, emergency dispatch services and tax assessment and collections, and take concrete steps toward coordinating more functions in the future.
The commission, which was chaired by Sen. Lou DiPalma, identified many other areas that should be studied further in the long-term future for savings through sharing, including purchasing, building inspections, animal control, maintaining and protecting local coastlines, police, fire, schools retiree health benefits, economic development and planning and public works.
“There’s little doubt that there are savings to be had if communities are willing to team up instead of going it alone on almost every service they provide and task that they perform. There’s a lot of duplication of effort in the state, and with the financial hardships most cities and towns are facing, it would be a very good time to look for ways to provide services more efficiently,” DiPalma said at the time. “Our commission identified some functions that we believe could be combined in the near future, and we believe there are many other areas where cities and towns could, with some effort, save taxpayers considerable money if they are willing to join forces with other communities.”
High Salary Jobs Never Eliminated
The commission actually recommended a non-binding ballot question to gauge voters’ support of consolidation of municipal services, but it never appeared on the 2010 ballot. And while cities and towns have faced cuts in state aid and increased budget deficits in recent years, the highest paid position in city government have generally remained the same or increased.
Although it would be impossible to eliminate any of the positions on the list, some critics have questioned the inability of cities and towns to cut the salaries of other well-paying municipal jobs. Last fall, Representative Robert Jacquard, a Cranston Democrat, told Go LocalProv Representatives that he was “dismayed” at some of the high price tags.
“In my entire time as a Representative, I’ve never seen a single high salary job eliminated,” Jacquard said. “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.”
During the last General Assembly session, Woonsocket Representative Jon Brien, the chairman of the House Municipal Government Committee, said cutbacks have forced cities and towns to look for more flexibility. He said it is time to get serious about regionalization.
“In the past, regionalization and consolidation of municipal services have been talked about but never truly considered,” Brien said. “But if there’s ever been a time to make an effort to implement some sort of consolidation or sharing, that time is now, when municipalities are struggling just to stay afloat.”
Rethink Government Structure
In some communities, salaries for the highest paid employees are nearly impossible to address. Chief executives, for example, can have charter rules that prohibit pay increases while the current Mayor is office. This explains why town administrators in smaller communities occasionally make more than mayors of the major cities, according to Dan Beardsley, who heads up the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns.
“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.”
But if Rhode Island’s cities and towns want to stay afloat, changes need to be made, according to Dr. Edward Mazze, Distinguished University Professor of Business Administration at the University of Rhode Island. Mazze told GoLocalProv that it is time to restructure local government.
“The solution to this problem is to rethink the type of government structure and services that Rhode Islanders want and can afford,” he said.
EDITOR"S NOTE: Salaries are from the 2011 Municipal Salary Survey. Edward Daft is the intermin Superintendent in East Providence and his salary is actually $125,303. We apologise for this error.
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