Promotions boost women city workers up municipal pay scale

LYNN – Top City Hall salaries for 2012 include pay hikes handed out to three veteran women employees who Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said are long overdue for raises.Kennedy added thousands of dollars to the city administrative assistants’ salaries by negotiating changes in their job titles and bargaining with the municipal union representing the women.”It’s entirely coincidental they are women. I like to reward people for a job well done,” said Lynn’s first woman mayor.Salary figures provided by the city show each woman received roughly $5,000 in pay hikes between 2012 and 2013 based on their pay scales listed in city budgets for both years.Salary lists provided by the city indicate former Purchasing Department office supervisor Paula Flynn now earns $77,287. Parking Department executive assistant Mary Wright earns $83,905 in her new title and Veterans Department executive assistant Mary Cronin’s current salary is listed at $71,541.Wright said her pay and job title upgrade from administrative assistant to executive assistant were long overdue.”I’ve been here 27 years with no title upgrade in 18 years,” she said.Flynn has worked in Purchasing for 28 years and said the job title changes from administrative assistant to executive assistant for her, Wright and Cronin “gives us a promotional opportunity.””I think our expertise and years of service were recognized,” she said.Despite her supervisor title, Flynn has been “performing executive assistant functions” in Purchasing “for a long time,” Kennedy said.Wright said her job has evolved from handling Parking Department needs to handling fines and ticketing for city code violations. Kennedy said Wright’s upgrade reflects a Parking Department reorganization.She said Cronin’s title upgrade and pay hike reflects her decades of experience working in the Veterans Services office.”For a long time, it was a two-person office. She’s done yeoman’s work,” Kennedy said.The mayor negotiated Flynn, Wright and Cronin’s pay hikes with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3147. She said negotiators agreed on the pay hikes only after Kennedy determined the Parking, Purchasing and Veterans Services departments had money in their budgets to cover the raises.She said the three promotions were made at the request of the respective department’s directors.Kennedy also signed off on a $15,000 City Council-approved pay hike for City Clerk Mary Audley that makes Audley the highest-paid female employee in city government outside of the School Department. The Council approved Audley’s raise on March 26.Audley pointed out that in 2003, the city Election Department director earned $70,000 and the City Clerk earned $80,000. Both departments were combined with Audley serving as clerk but running both departments while only receiving the City Clerk’s salary.She received a $5,000 Council-approved pay hike in 2005, but noted that until her current raise, department heads running other multi-department offices – namely Public Works and Inspectional Services – received much higher salaries than the $94,419 she previously earned.Her current $122,601 salary puts her pay on par with Public Works Commissioner Manuel Alcantara’s $122,016 pay but behind top city wage earners. Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan earns $160,976.Chief Financial Officer Richard Fortucci makes $139,945; Economic Development and Industrial Corporation Director James Cowdell earns $132,166.Other top-earning women include Chief Librarian Theresa Hurley ($92,488) and Kennedy ($82,500), according to city pay lists.See for yourselfThe three charts below contain all 2012 salaries for Lynn City Hall, Inspectional Services, Department of Public Works, Parking and Library employees. Scroll through the pages, and click on the heading of each column to sort A-Z or highest to lowest.City HallInspectional Services DepartmentDepartment of Public WorksParkingLibraryThor Jourgensen can be reached at tjourgensen@item