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Archive for the 'Assistant City Manager Nancy Johnson' Tag

More than 400 city employees make more money than the mayor

July 27th, 2011, 10:13 am by

UPDATE: To see which employees make more money than the mayor, click here.

Mayor Steve Bach may be the head honcho at City Hall, but he’s hardly the highest paid.

As the city’s chief executive, the mayor gets $96,000 a year.

Poor Bach.

According to information requested by The Gazette, there are 429 employees of the city, Memorial Health System and Colorado Springs Utilities whose base pay is higher than the mayor’s.

The request was strictly for base pay and didn’t include other forms of compensation, such as bonuses or overtime.

So by year’s end, many more city employees – especially police officers, firefighters and nurses – will likely make more money than Bach.

Even Bach’s chief of staff, Steve Cox, makes more than his boss – almost twice as much, in fact.

Cox, a longtime city employee, is paid $182,448 a year.

Cox is the second-highest paid municipal government employee.

The highest paid is City Attorney Patricia Kelly, who gets $183,736 a year.

Assistant City Manager Nancy Johnson is third with a base annual salary of $165,899, though Johnson is poised to take a pay cut in her new job as director of parks, planning and public works.

In a recent interview, Bach said the city and The City Committee — a group of business leaders who have been studying city operations for the past year — plan to hire a consultant to complete a thorough wage and salary review of city employees.

“For the … civilian positions, we’re going to compare to the local private sector – major private sector corporations in Colorado Springs,” Bach said. “That’s our competition, isn’t it?”

At Utilities, CEO Jerry Forte is the highest paid employee with $276,750 a year in base pay.

Forte is also entitled to receive incentive pay. His 2010 incentive pay was more than $76,000.

The other top earners at Utilities include Chief Energy Services Officer Bruce McCormick, whose base pay is $245,003, Chief Water Services Officer Gary Bostrom, whose base pay is $224,390, Chief Planning and Finance Officer Bill Cherrier, whose base pay is $220,002 and Carmelo “Carl” Cruz, whose base pay is $194,064. Cruz is the utility’s chief customer and corporate service officer.

At Memorial, the highest paid employee is Dr. Bryan Mahan, whose base pay is $588,079.

Memorial CEO Larry McEvoy and Dr. Laura Klein are tied for second with base annual pay of $550,000.04.

Dr. Aime Hollard isn’t far behind. Her base pay is $550,000.03.

Posted in: Budget • City Administration • City employees • Colorado Open Records Act • • • • • • • • | 89 Comments »

Undercover officers had been hiding in plain sight

October 30th, 2009, 10:24 am by

City Hall’s animosity toward an online database that lists the names, titles and salaries of every Colorado Springs city employee hasn’t quieted down.

Jumping into the debate this week was Assistant City Manager Nancy Johnson after Gazette columnist Barry Noreen weighed in on the topic.

In an e-mail sent to Noreen Wednesday, Johnson expressed her concerns.

“My only regret is that I wish we could have had a conversation with you before you published this list regarding our undercover officers,” Johnson said in the e-mail, which she cc’d to city spokeswoman Sue Skiffington-Blumberg and police Chief Richard Myers.

“I sincerely hope that the listing of their names does not jeopardize them or their families in any way,” Johnson said.

First, the online database included employee titles, but it didn’t identify any police employees as “undercover officers.”

Second, it was only after a city councilman raised the issue of pay cuts for city employees to help balance the 2010 budget that The Gazette requested salary information.

Finally, the Police Department revealed the location of its undercover officers a long time ago.

The name of the Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence Division was listed on the directory of a downtown building until the paper, while reporting a story about how much the city was spending on leases, showed up at the VNI’s door asking questions.

Posted in: Budget • City Administration • City Council • Colorado Open Records Act • • • • | Post a Comment »