62 Earn $100K or More on City Payroll in 2012

The only change this year is that it's Glenn Trueira, the current manager at the Peabody Municipal Light Plant, topping the city's earning charts for 2012 instead of William Waters.

Trueira earned $164,406 last year, according to city records, still less than Waters' $169,758 for his final year before retiring at the end of 2011.

Next and leading off the Police Department in gross pay is Deputy Chief Martin Cohan, who earned $154,837, followed by Michael Coleman at PMLP with $147,909.

Filling out the rest of the 10 highest paid city employees for 2012 are all police and one more PMLP employee -- Sgt. Timothy Maroney, Lt. Scott Wlasuk, Sgt. Vincent Patermo, Chief Robert Champagne, Lt. Arthur Yeo, PMLP engineer Russell Dunn and Capt. Dennis Bonaiuto.

Check out the chart below for the top 20 earners and their corresponding incomes.

Two people you'll notice missing from their usual spots on the list are the superintendent of schools and high school principal. That's because Interim Superintendent Herb Levine stepped down mid-year as Joe Mastrocola came on-board as the new superintendent and Ed Sapienza retired mid-year. Levine earned $103,412 while Mastrocola earned $83,700.

Although Sapienza was hired back as an interim principal, he can only earn a percentage of his former salary due to his retirement (pension). He was paid $77,469 in 2012.

A close look at 2012 earnings shows that Mayor Ted Bettencourt is 93rd on the list with a grand total of $93,251, but at the same time, 62 city employees now earned more than $100,000 last year.

, he'll generally out-earn at least most of his department heads.

It’s also not uncommon for police officers, conversely, to dominate the list of top earners, no matter the community, but it’s not because they rake in higher salaries than city officials. Police officers add to their generally modest salaries with detail pay, overtime and compensation under the Quinn Bill.

The legislation allows officers to be paid for advanced degrees and training they undergo during the course of their careers. The city also does not pay for traffic or safety details at private construction projects or events — only public ones.

For example, Maroney earned $62,647 in detail pay and Quinn Bill compensation and $22,116 in overtime in addition to his regular salary of $62,864 to arrive at a grand total of $147,626. On the other hand, Champagne is not eligible for overtime, but added to his salary of $100,160 with $43,021 under the Quinn Bill.

Firefighters do receive overtime and detail pay for certain hazardous situations that require oversight, but they have no comparative Quinn Bill measure.

Deputy Fire Chief Richard Nelson earned $125,491 last year, supporting his base salary of $78,160 with $20,572 in overtime and $26,759 in other earnings. On the other hand, Chief Steven Pasdon’s regular salary was $102,124 and he earned an additional $9,509 in other earnings.

The city’s finance department simply lumps detail pay, the Quinn Bill, holiday pay, longevity bonuses and other allowances and stipends for employees under the category of “other.”

The highest paid female on the city payroll was Assistant Superintendent of Schools Cara Murtagh, and is 40th on the list.

Top 20 earners for 2012

* Earnings reflect gross income