With OT, Saugus police dominate $100,000 club

SAUGUS – If the town were to form a $100,000 Club, 83 percent of its members would be police officers.Click Here for the complete list – SaugusThe number of town employees who made $100,000 or more in 2008 were overwhelmingly from the Police Department, due in large part to detail work and overtime. Eight percent of the club would be made up of firefighters and the remaining members, at 3 percent each, would include Town Manager Andrew Bisignani, High School Vice Principal Walter Keddy and High School Principal Joseph Diorio.Lt. Thomas Coogan topped the salary list once again with a lot of help from overtime and details and a little help from a retroactive raise.Bisignani said members of the Superior Officers Union saw a bump in their salaries for 2008 thanks to a retroactive increase received on July 1. Lt. Michael Annese, who clocked in at number six on the salary list, said another reason some salaries look healthier than last year is because overtime was included under wages. And with the department still suffering manpower shortages, the overtime was plenty.While Coogan, whom Annese noted works a tremendous amount of overtime along with detail work, put up impressive numbers for details – $31,800 – it was not as impressive as Officer Timothy Fawcett, who topped that category with $59,870 in detail work. Fawcett’s detail work, added to his $74,417 salary, put him eighth on the salary list.Coogan and Fawcett were just two of 18 officers who rounded out the top 18 spots on the 2008 salary list. Lt. Howard Wheeler, former Chief James MacKay and Sgt. Anthony LoPresti were also among the top five breadwinners.The first non-police employee on the list is Keddy who checks in at number 19 making $114,403 – six slots ahead of Diorio. Bisignani follows Keddy, but Diorio doesn’t appear on the list until slot 25 and with a salary nearly $4,300 less than Keddy.Fire Chief James Blanchard along with colleagues Capt. Chris Rizza, Capt. Arthur Sinclair, Capt. Daniel McNeil, Capt. Stephen Johnson, Capt. Donald Shea, Capt. Donald McQuaid, 21 additional police officers and Oaklandvale Principal Kathleen Stanton filled out the top 50 positions on the list.Checking in first for the teachers on the list is veteran High School English teacher Jane Osgood who ranked 66th with a salary of $86,959. She had plenty of company, however, with Elisabeth Masucci a few slots behind her and several dozen other colleagues filling out the bottom half of the list of 250 employees.The teachers have at least one fan in Fire Chief James Blanchard, who said they deserved the money they earned and more simply for what they do, educate children.