Wearing two hats pays off in Nahant

NAHANT – Town Administrator Mark Cullinan was the highest paid town employee in 2007 with a salary of $110,112.He was followed by officer Eugene Spelta, who earned $109,871 and the third spot was claimed by Stephen Shultz, who earned $108,341.Lt. Thomas Hutton, who earned $101,777 was the fourth highest-paid employee in town.Cullinan is paid $92,494 as town administrator and another $17,618 for serving as town engineer. Robert Ward, who is the fire chief and public works superintendent, earned $91,993. Denise Littlefield, who is the former superintendent/Johnson Elementary School principal, earned $85,751.Cullinan said having one employee fill two positions is financially beneficial to the town.”If you have one person qualified to perform both sets of duties it actually saves the town money,” he said. “You are able to hire one person to do one job for less than what it would cost to fill both positions. The town also saves money because it is paying benefits to one employee not two.”When detail work and overtime are added to the base salary seven of the 10 highest paid employees in town were in the police department. Detail and overtime were enough to put four police officers in the $100,000 club.Spelta, who had a base salary of $61,722, earned an additional $21,439 in overtime and another $26,709 in detail work. He was followed by Shultz, who earned $67,628 in straight salary but $108,341 after details and overtime were added in. Hutton, who had a base salary of $60,360, earned $105,502 with overtime and details.Sgt. Robert Dwyer, who had a base salary of $55,784, earned an additional $21,263 in overtime and $19,179 for detail work, making him the fifth highest paid employee in town.Six police officers made more than $20,000 each in overtime and four of the same officers made more than $18,000 each in detail work.Hutton said residents are not picking up the tab for most of the overtime and detail worked.”Detail work is not paid by the town,” he said. “It is paid for by private contractors. A very large percentage of the overtime is paid for with grants the chief acquired. We have had traffic patrols, drunken driving enforcement and other programs that were paid for by the federal and state grants he secured.”Overtime was also a factor within the fire department-seven firefighters earned more than $10,000 each last year in overtime alone.