Peabody Light co.’s Waters leads salary parade again

PEABODY – Bill Waters, manager of the Peabody Municipal Light Plant, again topped the city’s annual list of salaries, earning $165,969 in 2009. Waters earned $2,135 more than he did in 2008.https://newitemlive.wpengine.com/special/salaries/?id=6Municipal Light Plant employees were some of the highest paid in 2009, with Assistant Manager Russell Dunn making $141,427, Supervising Electric Engineer Glenn Trueira making $128,548 and Philip Rohn making $123,233, putting all three into the top 10.Superintendent Milton C. Burnett came in second on the list again last year with a salary of $149,100, despite taking a decrease in pay of almost $8,000 from his 2008 salary of $157,076.Police Chief Robert Champagne led the pack of police employees with a salary of $145,400, of which $95,727 was base pay and $49,672 was other income. His department dominated the list, with 11 police employees in the top 20 and 23 in the top 50.Deputy Police Chief Martin Cohan was the second-highest paid police employee and made $136,966 in 2009, $55,528 of which was from detail work and other income.Fire Chief Steven Pasdon jumped from No. 32 in 2008 to No. 17 in 2009, taking in $114,223 as the top-paid fire employee. There were only six fire employees in the top 50.Peabody Mayor Michael Bonfanti came in at No. 55, earning $95,233 in 2009, a decrease of $3,652 from 2008.Overall, the city paid $80.1 million to employees in 2009, with almost $1.5 million coming from overtime pay and $8.8 million from other income. Forty municipal employees made more than $100,000 last year.