Worcester Police Hold 45 of 50 Highest Paid Positions in City

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Adam Joseph Drici, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

The Worcester Police Department was home to the vast majority of the top-earning public employees during 2012, according to a report of salaries of all City and school employees from Acting Assistant Human Resources Director Dori Vecchio.

Worcester Police Department personnel accounted for 45 of the 50 city employees with the highest gross pay last year. Chief of Police Gary Gemme topped the list with gross pay of $198,699 in calendar year 2012, followed by Deputy Chief of Police Mark Roche, who grossed $193,304 last year.

Worcester Public Schools Superintendent Melinda Boone was the third highest-paid city employee, with gross pay of $188,400 in 2012. City Manager Michael O'Brien was fourth on the list, taking home $184,792 in gross pay last year.

Aside from Boone and O'Brien, the only other non-police personnel to crack the top 50 earners were Public Works Commissioner Robert Moylan, who came in 17th with $168,344 in gross pay, Fire Chief Gerard Dio, who came in 19th with $166,046 in gross pay, and Worcester Public Schools Chief Financial and Operations Officer Brian Allen, who came in 34th with gross pay of $155,960 in 2012.

Click here to see the list of the top 50 highest paid City employees in 2012.

Overtime and paid details add up

The 50th highest-paid City employee was a police officer who grossed $148,642 in 2012, substantially more than the officer's regular pay of $79,153.

According to City of Worcester Communications Specialist Colleen Bamford, the difference between regular pay and gross pay for the City's police personnel is the combination of overtime and paid detail. For detail assignments, said Bamford, the City recoups the paid detail amount from the companies that hire the details.

The amount of the difference between regular and gross pay ranged widely even among those police personnel in the top 50 highest-paid employees for 2012. For example, Chief Gemme, the highest grossing City employee last year, picked up just $7,272 in addition to his regular pay of $191,427.

A police officer with regular pay of $79,135, on the other hand, racked up $94,000 in additional pay, grossing $173,135 for 2012 and earning the 12th spot on the list. Another police officer more than doubled his $82,392 regular pay last year, grossing $167,841, enough to earn the 18th spot on the list. It was unclear how much of either officer's additional pay was for overtime and how much was for paid detail.

The Worcester Police Department did not respond to a call for comment regarding the department's salaries and the pay scale for police personnel.

In all, 10 police officers, 12 lieutenants, six captains, 12 sergeants, and four deputy chiefs and Chief Gemme all were among the 50 highest grossing public employees in 2012.

WPD restructured, but still short on manpower

The Worcester Police Department has undergone organizational restructuring over the past several years in order to streamline management and reduce costs, but staffing levels are still well below what they were in the early 2000s and adding more recruits remains a top priority on the City Council.

In a report to the City Manager and Council last month, Chief Gemme said the "severe economic downturn" prompted the department to reduce staffing and restructure to meet tighter budget restrictions.

"In order to meet these new demands, the department consolidated some units, laid off a recruit class, and through attrition reduced the number of supervisory personnel," he said in the report.

The number of police supervisors has been reduced from 99 to 88 solely through attrition, realizing annual savings of $1.15 million for the department.

According to Gemme, the department currently has 324 officers, and an additional 17 enrolled in the police academy will be joining the force later this year. At the same time, the department expects its rolls to thin by six members due to attrition by the end of the summer of 2013. The arrivals and departures will bring the WPD's ranks to 335 officers, which Gemme said is a net increase of five more than the reorganizational staffing level, but still well below the 382 officers the department previously authorized and budgeted for.

The City Council has made a police recruit class of 20 a top priority for the fiscal year 2014 budget, and City Manager O'Brien said last month that new personnel investments in the police department must be directed towards the positions that provide front-line direct and immediate police services, such as traffic officers, community impact officers, and patrol officers, who would be responsive and visible to the community.