Superintendent, police top Lynn salaries

This is the fourth in a series of Closer Look features on municipal salaries. The final article, next week, will be on Lynn City Hall.School Superintendent Catherine Latham continues to top the city’s salary list taking home a reported $190,116, more than double Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy’s salary, according to the salary list provided by the city’s Chief Financial Officer Richard Fortucci.It is the Police Department salaries however that stand out. Police Chief Kevin Coppinger is the city’s second top salary earner, taking home $186,634 in 2012. He topped the police salary list, which often is not the case. In the past, officers who work overtime and details typically outpaced the chief financially.In fiscal year 2010, the last time the Item reported on municipal salaries, Lt. Peter Holey topped the list by taking home $43,651 in overtime. This year Holey upped that slightly, taking home $47,983 in overtime pay but it was his brother Paul Holey who topped the overtime list. Paul Holey took home $60,137 in overtime last year, which is roughly $15,600 off his base pay of $75,857.John Meaney also put in a lot of overtime last year, bringing home $48,724, or nearly half his base pay.Along with overtime police officers are also afforded the chance to bump up their salaries by working detail jobs, which Deputy Chief Kenneth Santoro pointed out is not paid for by the city. Officers that work details are paid by the company that hires them. Officer John Dean earned the most in detail pay taking home $64,082, which added to his base pay of $68,691 and made him the 22nd top earner in the department.Officers also received an added, one-time-only bump in pay in 2011 with retroactive pay as the result of a contract settlement. Coppinger said the back pay is from fiscal year 2012 which ran from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012.On the Fire Department side retired Chief Dennis Carmody was the top earner with $166,875 followed by 29 other firefighters who all made more than $100,000 in 2012.With 151 members of the School Department, 150 police personnel, 88 firefighters, nine Inspectional Services employees, six members of the Department of Public Works, three Parking Department employees and the library director all making more than $82,500 a year in 2012, Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy remains far down on the salary list ranking in at number 425. City Hall salaries will be analyzed in next Monday’s Closer Look.Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected] for yourselfThe three charts below contain all 2012 salaries for Lynn public schools, fire and police employees. Scroll through the pages, and click on the heading of each column to sort A-Z or highest to lowest.Lynn School DepartmentLynn Fire DepartmentLynn Police Department