Malone, police dominate Swampscott’s top 10 earners

SWAMPSCOTT – When it comes to earning a living in Swampscott, working for the school department or police department pays off.When it comes to straight salary, which does not include overtime or detail work, 50 percent of town employees earning more than $100,000 work for the school department.When it comes to salary alone, Superintendent Matt-hew Malone, who earned $150,863, was the highest paid in town. He was followed by Police Chief Ronald Madigan, who earned $122,336. Town Administrator Andrew Maylor grabbed the third spot with $116,719 and he was followed closely by High School principal Lawrence Murphy, who made $116,649.Like last year, the lions’ share of the town budget for salaries went to school department employees. There were 106 town employees who earned more than $70,000 in salary alone in 2007 and 81 of those were in the school department.When overtime and detail work is added to the mix, four of the five top wage earners were in the police department.Lt. Thomas Stevens grabbed the second spot on the list of highest paid town employees by supplementing his base salary of $86,707 with an additional $35,224 in overtime and $12,485 in detail work.When overtime and details are taken into consideration, officer Jonathan Locke grabbed the third spot on the list by supplementing his $75,472 salary with $24,478 in overtime and $34,217 in details.The police department spent more than $514,700 in overtime in 2007.Madigan said vacation time, sick time and contractual days off accounted for most of the overtime.”As an administrator I would prefer adequate staffing levels to using overtime,” he said. “But there are always cases where we need to use overtime to address specific situations and to cover shifts when officers are out.”Madigan added some of the overtime in the department is paid for with state and federal grants and private contractors foot the bill for details.Overtime was also a factor in the fire department, where totaled $258,460. Chief Richard Carmody said overtime is up because staffing levels are down and he expects overtime to increase even more next year.”Overtime covers sick day, vacation days, holidays and contracted benefits,” he said. “The firefighters have made concessions to save the town money and some of those concessions were in terms of staffing. “We’re down four people and the selectmen recently voted not to fill a vacant funded position so I expect overtime will continue to increase.”Maylor agreed that staffing levels, injuries and vacancies play a huge role in overtime especially when it comes to the police and fire departments.Maylor said overtime, like heating and utility costs, is subject to change and it must be monitored continuously throughout the year.