Nahant’s Cullinan does double duty to lead town in earnings

Editor’s Note: This is the last in a week-long series of stories about municipal salaries in the Greater Lynn area.NAHANT – Mark Cullinan garnered the highest municipal salary in Nahant, grossing $127,310 in 2010. But like several town employees, Cullinan’s salary total came from two positions: $107,607 for serving as Town Administrator and the balance for serving as Town Engineer.”People are doing more than they have in the past,” said Cullinan, noting that the fire chief also works a 24-hour shift and the town has combined the superintendent and general foreman positions to make a working superintendent in charge of Public Works. “I think that’s pretty unique.””I’m basically saving the town some money,” said Working Superintendent Timothy Lowe, who was surprised that he grossed $91,244 in 2010 due to more than $5,000 in overtime pay. “That means I’m going to get less this year because as General Foreman I got overtime.”Like in many other communities, overtime and private details pushed police and fire salaries to the top of the list. Two members of the Police Department, Officer Eugene Spelta and Sgt. Stephen Shultz, worked enough overtime and private details – which are predominantly paid for by an independent business rather than the town – to boost their gross salaries from $61,440 and $67,886, respectively, to more than $100,000. Seven of the top 10 employees were members of the Police or Fire Departments.Chief Robert Dwyer, who was fifth overall on the list with a salary of $92,660, said that the number of police officers at the top of the list resulted from several factors, including private details and overtime but also shift differentials and education incentives.Base rates for patrol officers begin at $49,744, sergeants have a base of $54,794 and lieutenants have a base of $60,273, Dwyer said.He added that officers on 4 p.m. to midnight shifts are paid 4 percent more than their base rate, while those on the midnight to 8 a.m. shift are paid 8 percent more than the base rate. Although Town Meeting will debate rescinding the Quinn Bill, where the state provided funding to tie officers’ wages to educational achievement, the departments’ contract includes incentives for education.Selectman Chair Rich Lombard said that these salaries and benefits are comparable or slightly below the average of similar towns in Massachusetts, but reflected Nahant’s unique situation as a small, but very bustling community during the summer.”I’m not at all concerned about the salaries,” said Lombard. “I think we’re competitive, but always think that we’re on the lower end of the scale because of the size of us. In this business, you’ve got to be competitive,” Lombard continued, saying that the departments have gone through periods with a lot of turnover. “If you don’t give them the incentive to stay, you train them and then they leave for bigger cities and towns.”To help retention of officers, the town hires approximately 20 part-time reserve officers for the summer. The practice started about 40 years ago, Lombard said, and the program has served as a stepping stone for recruiting full-time staff.Nevertheless, Lombard said that the public safety departments were at minimum staffing levels to conserve funds.”Things are very, very difficult and we’ve got quite a few elderly people that are on a fixed income in Nahant,” Lombard said. “We really can’t have exorbitant salaries, we can’t afford it.”Dwyer added that the union has taken 0 percent increases several times, including last year, because of the town’s financial situation.”Of course, with everything else, the budgets are tight and I just hope that no serious incidents – hurricanes, or big storms, or officers getting hurt – occur where I’ve taken a big hit on budgets” (in the past), Dwyer said.As for long-term trends, Cullinan said that the number of salaried employees has decreased as positions are combined after retirements. Cullinan said that they added a full-time firefighter when th