Somerville employees with salary >$50K

[jd-science.livejournal.com]

I came across this completely randomly:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/x501037560

It's a list (plus a link to a downloadable spreadsheet) of city employees making over $50,000 in 2007, including their actual salaries and pay breakdowns (e.g., how much overtime pay vs base salary). It's fascinating.

The "author" is GateHouse News Service, whoever that is, and the date on the article is April 2008.

I don't recall seeing this posted on LJ at any point. If it was already discussed, I'll delete this post. Enjoy.

Comments

[ron_newman]

GateHouse News is the company that owns the Somerville Journal (and the Cambridge Chronicle, Arlington Advocate, Medford Transcript and just about every other local suburban weekly)

[fefie.livejournal.com]

The Somerville Journal publishes this salaries report of city employees annually.

[jd-science.livejournal.com]

indeed. thanks for this info. here is the more recent version:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/town_info/government/x998785836/Somerville-s-top-salaries-approaching-the-200-000-mark

which includes interpretation.

Yup, I remember being a little surprised

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

About some of the salaries... Especially, when everybody is whining about how little they make and how hard they have it...

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Does anyone else find it depressing or upsetting that the top 40 earners (with the exception of Superintendent of Schools Pierantozzi) are all police officers and not educators (even if some of that is state money in the form of pay for detail work)? You have to read all the way to number 197, past about a hundred regular police officers, before you get to Cheryl Seabrook-Wilson, the first actual teacher on the list at $88,461.28.

I mean even if you don't worry too much about where the money is coming from, it seems pretty clear that the police are going to have an easier time attracting talented individuals than the schools are...

Am I understanding this correctly? Because the way it looks to me (the untrained eye) is really pretty sad...

[cold-type.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of opportunities for cops and firefighters to earn extra money through overtime (including police details).

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Evidently a lot more than there are opportunities for teachers to do the same...

[cowhockey.livejournal.com]

There isn't overtime for teachers. Sadly we don't get paid for staying after school and coming in early. Then again, I didn't become a teacher for the money.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Yes, because we really need a uniformed cop standing at the edge of the road every time there's a utility repair truck parked there that isn't obstructing traffic at all...

I thought Patrick had changed that...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Has it been reversed?

Re: I thought Patrick had changed that...

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

He did it at the state level - individual PD's may have contracts, however, that can't be changed with a simple legislative finger wave.

Re: I thought Patrick had changed that...

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Patrick made a valiant effort, but ultimately did little. To avoid messing with municipal autonomy, his changes only applied to state projects anyway. Somerville could, if it chooses, use flagmen, or better yet, no detail at all, in most cases, but our local government won't touch that nest of hornets with a 50 foot pole.

Personally I think the whole issue of cops verses flagmen is a red herring. The real question is detail or no detail and in many many cases I see a cop there where their presence is completely unnecessary to ensure the safety of the work site.

Re: I thought Patrick had changed that...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Every time I catch a cab and go down Union Sq, there are a few cops standing near work site doing absolutely nothing (well, breathing smog, I suppose). Each time, I have to listen to the cabbies bitching about it, but I could not agree more with them :)

Re: I thought Patrick had changed that...

[silveraeroguy.livejournal.com]

I got a good chuckle while biking past the work that was recently done on Medford St behind city hall.
1 Cop at Medford & School,
2 Cops at Medford & Pearl
another Officer in between....

every one of them had their cell attached to their heads.

Its becoming illegal to talk and drive or text and drive, but not so for directing traffic to keep us safe.

I hear private companies (aka hired flag-'men') don't like their workers to waste company time. Hence you'll never see a flag-man on a cell.

Re: I thought Patrick had changed that...

[gruene.livejournal.com]

The Cambridge police seem to be a little bit better in this regard. There was constriction near my office and I would see them dutifully standing there for hours on end on a one-block street entirely block off by traffic cones, looking bored out of the their skulls. I didn't feel too sorry for them, since presumably they were laughing all the way to the bank, but it did highlight how stupid most of our "traffic details" are.

[witzwurst.livejournal.com]

But why?

If there is that much overtime, shouldn't we be hiring more police officers?

[ethanfield.livejournal.com]

Just to clarify, it's not really accurate to call these "salaries". The number you see is the total amount that was paid this person through City payroll. But most of the detail money is just paid through the City from whoever commissioned the detail (i.e. if NStar wants to open the road up to do electrical work, NStar pays for the required detail.) The City charges a fee (10%, I think) on top of what is paid the officer.

The relative value and necessity of the detail work is certainly debatable. All I'm saying is, it's easy to look at this and say, "Look at all the taxpayer money the City is wasting!" In fact, it's the other way around -- most of the detail work is a net positive for the City budget, as well as for the officers.

[ethanfield.livejournal.com]

Follow-up: If you want to see what the actual base pay for police officers is, it's on pages 248-251 of this pdf of the City's budget (http://www.somervillema.gov/cos_content/documents/CityofSomervilleFY10Budget.v6-July-8.pdf). The base salaries of every City staff person are listed there.

Well, these folks get what their union negotiate...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Powerful unions get more for their members (yes, possibly including great pension deals for fake injuries).

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

I think it's apples and oranges really.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Pay is pay. If anything, it's the teachers that should have the advanced degrees. They should definitely be getting more.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Teachers generally do have advanced degrees.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Which is why they should be paid more. Right now that profession tends to attract people that are willing to do the job even though they could make more almost anywhere else. Like with any other profession, that is almost guaranteed to cause a shortage of talent.

[cowhockey.livejournal.com]

Teachers are required to get their masters after teaching for 5 years, you can extend your initial certification one time before getting professional.

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Did anyone else notice that one of the policemen listed was Bruce Campbell? Because that's awesome.

[ilai]

I wonder if he was there during the Thriller zombie takeover....

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

Given the cost of living in Boston, I see no problem with any of these salaries.

love those unions

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

that basically inflate the salaries of their employees by securing contracts that create the best paid positions (private and public) in the city. If the city or any union had well being of workers in mind, these 'detail' jobs should be given to trained flag bearers. This would have several benefits.
1. extra jobs to local residents
2. police officers do police work and they are rested for it instead of working a 12 hour detail shift, then reporting for duty and sleeping in their cruiser.

Re: love those unions

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

The key point is that those salaries are given out REGARDLESS of performance, typically. They are merely based on "seniority". That is what bugs me the most. People who are guaranteed increases in wages with time will become more and more useless with time.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Well, it's good that they're taking care of Tom Champion.

[cowhockey.livejournal.com]

This.

[acidgalore.livejournal.com]

The Mayor is 55th?!

That is just salary.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I assume he gets quite a bit of extra income via other sources...

Re: That is just salary.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Why? Because he's corrupt and taking bribes form developers? Or because he's also working the night shift at Market Basket? Personally I'd rather we paid our politicians enough that they don't need "other sources" of income to make ends meet, which I think Mayor Joe's salary of nearly $125K more than covers.

Re: That is just salary.

[ethanfield.livejournal.com]

I don't think Joe has other income sources (as far as I know.) There is campaign fundraising you could scrutinize, but that's not personal income. He does volunteer coaching of the football team, for free, and has been since before he was an Alderman.

Re: That is just salary.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I would be surprised if Joe did not make quite a bit on the side with consulting, being on boards and various other things... They all do. It's part of the perks.