Two Stamford employees earned $400k+ in 2018

1. Richard Conklin Stamford Police Captain $438,300* *Includes $112,696 in extra-duty pay 1. Richard Conklin Stamford Police Captain $438,300* *Includes $112,696 in extra-duty pay Photo: Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 26 Caption Close Two Stamford employees earned $400k+ in 2018 1 / 26 Back to Gallery

STAMFORD — Two city employees — police officers earning significant overtime and extra-duty pay — cracked the $400,000 salary mark last year, payroll data shows.

The payroll reveals a second landmark: the number of municipal employees earning six figures, not counting police extra duty, has surpassed 1,000. It means a third of all full-time municipal employees took home $100,000 or more last year.

Capt. Richard Conklin heads the 2018 list as he did in 2017, earning a total of $438,300. That includes $136,521 in base pay, $189,083 in overtime, and $112,696 in extra-duty pay, which officers earn directing traffic at construction sites or providing security for events while off-shift.

Another police captain, Diedrich Hohn, took the No. 2 spot in 2018 as he did the previous year, this time earning $411,680. Hohn’s salary includes $129,092 in base pay, $167,948 in overtime, and $55,499 in extra-duty pay.

Last year, municipal employees made sizable salary strides. Of the 3,292 full-timers, 1,120 of them earned at least $100,000, counting base pay plus overtime, but not police extra-duty pay. That’s up from 965 the previous year, a 16 percent increase.

It’s part of a trend that began eight years ago, when the number of high earners, excluding police extra duty, quadrupled. That was 2011, when 418 employees earned six figures. Between then and last year, the number of high earners jumped 168 percent.

Extra-duty pay put 70 officers on the six-figure list last year, when police occupied 87 of the top 100 highest-earner slots.

Without extra duty, the number of police officers in the top 100 drops almost in half, to 36, and those officers are there mostly because of on-shift overtime pay. Because of overtime, 20 firefighters also make the top 100 list, not counting extra-duty pay. The same is true for five employees in the Office of Operations.

Looking at base pay alone, only three police officers make the top 100 — Chief Jonathan Fontneau, $170,147, Capt. Thomas Lombardo, $137,636, and Conklin at $136,521.

Schools rule

Considering base pay only, the top 100 list is dominated by Board of Education employees — 66 of them.

No. 1 is Superintendent Earl Kim, base pay $269,606, who also earns $6,519 in other compensation. Kim said April 12 he is stepping down with two years remaining on his contract. A formal announcement, perhaps in the coming week, is expected to explain why Kim is leaving.

Kim is followed on the top 100 list by Deputy Superintendent Tamu Lucero, base pay $232,537 plus $4,928 in other pay, and Assistant Superintendent Michael Fernandez, base $207,569 plus $3,000 in other pay.

Most of the rest of the top 100 are principals and assistant principals earning base pay in the $180,000s to the $150,000s.

Changing ranks

Mayor David Martin’s total pay of $175,662 illustrates how the rankings change when overtime and extra-duty pay are factored.

On the list that includes police extra-duty pay, Martin ranks 117th citywide. On the list that eliminates extra-duty pay but includes overtime pay, Martin ranks 47th. Considering base pay alone, the mayor is No. 9. The eight employees ahead of him all work for the school district.

Martin’s chief of staff, Michael Pollard, ranks 34th on the base-pay-only list, earning $163,641 last year. Three other members of Martin’s cabinet fall in close behind.

Salaries are a concern for some members of the Board of Finance, who this week met to cut Martin’s proposed 2019-20 operating budget of $603 million and capital budget of $93.3 million. Citing the 4.4 percent tax increase that would have come with Martin’s spending plan, the board voted to trim his raise and those of his top executives from about 3 percent to 2 percent.

Board of Finance cuts reduced the tax hike to 3.6 percent. The Board of Representatives will make the final budget cuts May 1.

The Stamford Advocate requested the salary data in January under the state Freedom of Information Act. Previous administrations have released the data, which the newspaper has requested for more than three decades, in January or early February. Martin’s administration typically responds in April or May.

After releasing the data Thursday, Martin issued a statement saying it takes “multiple months” to compile it, check it, and make “minor adjustments.” The city “prioritizes accuracy over immediacy when communicating complex issues to the public or the media,” Martin said.

His statement says the city spent $314.5 million on salaries and compensation last year. It was a 1.9 percent increase over the previous year, which Martin attributed to an extra pay period in the calendar for school board employees, the settling of a decade-old police union grievance, and an increase in police extra-duty work because of a plethora of construction projects.

A spotlight was turned on the extra-duty program this month, when four police officers were relieved of duty pending an investigation into their conduct in Central Hiring Office. The office parcels out extra-duty jobs, which pay officers $68 an hour and provide the city with a 16 percent administrative fee.

The wrongdoing reportedly involves a rule that says if the party seeking to hire an extra-duty officer cancels after 10 p.m. for a job set to start the following day, the officer gets four hours pay anyway. The accused officers allegedly manipulated the system to get themselves paid for late-canceled jobs in an amount that could total $100,000 to $200,000.

Union pay

In his statement Martin said 95 percent of the money spent on compensation goes to union employees, and an overwhelming number of six-figure earners are union members.

“The City of Stamford believes these individuals are — for the most part — paid fairly for the responsibilities they’re entrusted with and work they perform,” Martin wrote. “Many of these workers have bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, or hold a position where they repeatedly risk their lives, which justifies their higher compensation. Any criticism of city workers who make over $100,000 is necessarily a criticism of union workers who educate our children and keep our community safe. The City of Stamford does not condone this criticism and believes it is misplaced.”

His salary and those of his top executives are fair compared with other cities, Martin said, partly because “Stamford does not provide pensions, personal drivers, or estate mansions for its mayor or any of the administration’s cabinet.”

Salaries are not the key driver of rising city expenditures, the mayor said.

“Health care, pensions, and paid time off ... are significantly disproportionate to private-sector standards,” Martin said. “The city has negotiated aggressively to lower these structural costs for taxpayers and will continue to do so.”

Martin said the average salary for a full-time city employee is $76,271. That’s about $11,000 less than the median income for a Stamford household, which is $87,316 as reported in the city’s 2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.

Unlike rising city salaries, the 2018 median income for Stamford households was the same as the previous year, and slightly less than 2016, according to the report. The salary data shows that, including police extra-duty pay, 1,656 municipal employees — or half the full-timers — earned more than the typical Stamford household last year.

The report says Stamford’s biggest employer is Stamford. The city and school system last year employed 3,292 full-timers, according to the report, plus 1,714 part-time and temporary employees.

acarella@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2296.