Overtime puts Warren police among town's highest paid

Town solicitor was number one earner last year; DPW Director in top 10 list too

By Ted Hayes
Posted 3/1/17

Warren’s 10 highest paid municipal employees earned an average of $103,486.73 this past year, according to information provided this week by Warren’s finance department. Overtime, road …

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Overtime puts Warren police among town's highest paid

Town solicitor was number one earner last year; DPW Director in top 10 list too

Posted

Warren’s 10 highest paid municipal employees earned an average of $103,486.73 this past year, according to information provided this week by Warren’s finance department. Overtime, road detail and holiday pay, as well as unused vacation and sick time buyouts accounted for a large portion of those employees’ gross pay.
As in previous years, Warren Town Solicitor Anthony DeSisto was again the town’s top earner in 2016. Though he is not a town employee and does not receive benefits, payment of Mr. DeSisto’s legal fees representing the town at large, and in planning and zoning matters, amounted to $121,286.66.
Of the remaining nine employees on the list, eight are police officers whose salaries were bolstered by overtime, detail work, holiday pay, longevity and other payments. Apart from Mr. DeSisto and eight police officers, the only other employee on the list is former DPW Director John Massed, who earned $108,913. That was due in large part to his cashing out $34,437.87 in unused vacation/sick time upon his retirement three months ago.
Overtime factors in
As in many years, the bulk of the town’s highest earners were police officers, who accumulated thousands in supplementary pay for working long overtime hours and on private and town-paid details. Though the officers’ average salary last year was $61,971.90, the eight on the list averaged $18,362 in overtime pay, plus additional payouts for road detail duty, holiday pay, longevity, clothing allowances and more.
On average, the officers put in 460 hours of overtime last year, for a weekly average of about 8.6 hours.
Nobody on the force worked longer than Officer Christopher Perrault, who earned $37,865.85 in overtime pay by working 792 overtime hours in 2016 — more than 15 hours per week. As a result of that, holiday pay and other payments, he nearly doubled his $62,137 wages to $119,724.80 — enough to place him second on the top 10 list.
Another contributor to additional income for police officers comes from detail work, including “road pay.”
Officers assigned to work special details earn $45 per hour, and those on town-paid details earn time and a half of their regular hourly rate. The police contract states that officers working details are paid for a minimum of four hours work, and in addition to the rates above are compensated at time and a half when working holidays, any hours worked over eight on any detail, and for any detail worked between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
In addition, the average officer on the list received $4,060 in holiday pay and $5,580 in longevity bonuses. Other smaller payments included $1,700 in clothing allowances and $700 for education.

Where they rank: Warren’s 2016 Top 10 earners

1. Anthony DeSisto $121,286
2. Sgt. Christopher Perrault $119,724
3. John Massed $108,913
4. Lt.Roy Borges $108,814
5. Sgt. Mike Marcello $108,122
6. Sgt. Edward Borges $102,100
7. Deputy Chief Joseph Loiselle $100,314
8. Ptlm. Daniel Lagarto $90,117
9. Ptlm. Joel Morrissette $87,890
10. Det. Kristen Beaulieu $87,583

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