Crime & Safety

The City's Highest Paid Employees

The Bay Area News Group released a database on April 4 of salaries, pension and healthcare contributions for employees in more than 250 government agencies. The city's top earner last year was former police chief Ian Willis.

Of the 20 highest paid San Leandro city employees last year, 14 were police officials, according to a database of public employee salaries compiled by the Bay Area News Group and released April 4.

The city’s top earner last year was former police chief Ian Willis. The former chief earned $267,972, according to the database, while the city paid some $11,000 towards Willis’s medical plan and $66,800 towards his CalPERS pension fund.

San Leandro Bytes reported earlier this year that the starting salary of the new police chief, Sandra Spagnoli, is $176,256.

Find out what's happening in San Leandrowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Willis’s total cost of employment to the city was $347,830, according to the database.

Of Willis’s pension contribution, nearly $12,000 is technically the employee-paid contribution to CalPERS, which the City of San Leandro covers for its employees. This is a common perk among some public agencies, although many have recently asked employees to chip in because of ballooning pension costs.

Find out what's happening in San Leandrowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The second highest paid city employee last year was City Manager Stephen Hollister, who earned $211,900, according to the database. The city paid some $17,000 towards his medical plan and a total of $47,500 to his pension fund.

The city also spent another $10,500 in unspecified non-cash costs for Hollister’s services, according to the database. His total cost of employment to the city was $286,975. Hollister is stepping down at the end of June and the city is currently looking for a replacement.

The third highest paid city employee was Assistant City Manager Lianne Marshall, who took home $178,629 and whose total cost of employment was nearly $238,000, according to the database.

Among the top 20 highest paid city employees are two police officers, the lowest-ranked sworn police position. (The other police officials on the list, besides the chief, are lieutenants, sergeants, and captains).

One of the officers, Isaac Benabou, was the fifth highest paid employee in the city last year, earning $92,276 as a base salary, and an additional $72,440 in “other cash payments including overtime,” for gross earnings of $164,716, according to the database. 

Lt. Jeff Tudor, spokesman for the San Leandro Police Department, said overtime was available to officers because the department is low staffed. 

"They’re using their personal time to work because we don’t want to get to minimum staffing levels to where it’s unsafe to other officers and the citizens of San Leandro," Tudor said.

The city's top earners did not make it into the Bay Area's top 100 earners. (Willis is the 109th highest paid earner of those Bay Area agencies that submitted their salary information to the news group.)

In terms of pensions, the city paid the highest pension contribution in 2010 to Police Capt. Stephen Pricco — $89,595, according to the database.

The city’s least expensive employee last year was Sarah Neal, who held the position of Recreation Leader II in the city’s Recreation and Human Services Department. Neal cost the city $1 last year, according to the database.

The highest paid public official in the Bay Area, of those agencies that provided information to the Bay Area News Group, was San Jose Police Chief Robert Davis, with gross earnings of $534,576, according to the database.

For a full look at the database, which includes salaries, pension and healthcare contributions for employees in more than 250 government agencies, visit http://www.mercurynews.com/salaries/


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