The city paid its 413 top-earning employees a total of $48.4 million last year, but the number of people making $100,000 or more annually is down, and falls further once police department salaries are excluded.
The annual Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act report released yesterday shows Ottawa paid six figures to a long list of employees that starts with senior management and includes police, paramedics, firefighters, librarians — and even a bus driver.
The 413 employees on the list represent 2.4 per cent of Ottawa’s 16,962-person workforce. But business transformation services executive director Stephen Finnamore notes the number of $100,000 earners is down from 424 in 2006, and that 19 per cent fewer municipal staff were high earners last year once police are excluded.
When just municipal staff is considered, the number of $100,000 earners dropped from 241 in 2006 to 195 (plus five library staff) this year.
Finnamore said the decrease is likely attributed to a group of senior employees who have left or retired, and junior management coming in behind them but not earning quite as much.
“But more importantly,” he said, “a chunk of that list are above $100,000 not because of base salary, but because things like payouts and overtime … so they are one-time folks. What happens is that from one year to the next, we see the number fluctuate accordingly.”
The $100,000 club includes 51 employees with base salaries of less than $100,000, but who made the list with overtime and other payments, Finnamore said.
City manager Kent Kirkpatrick’s $274,703 compensation made him Ottawa’s top earner. He also heads a smaller group of five bureaucrats who earned more than $200,000: Deputy city managers Richard Hewitt and Steve Kanellakos ($213,035 and $212,989, respectively), chief of corporate service Greg Geddes ($203,897), and David Salisbury, the medical officer of health ($202,670).
While the top earners are city senior managers, police comprised more than half the list, with 213 employees earning $100,000-plus.
Insp. Michael Flanagan was the top Ottawa Police Service earner, edging out Deputy Chief Susan O’Sullivan by a few hundred dollars for eighth place overall with annual compensation of $179,839.
Police Chief Vern White earned $124,166 in 2007, but he started the job in May 2007 and that amount doesn’t reflect his full year compensation.
Municipal and police department employees’ compensation rates include salaries, overtime pay, vacation cash outs and other payments.
–derek.gordanier@metronews.ca
