As promised in this week's print edition of
WW, here is the compensation information for
every city of Portland employee in the 2011 fiscal year.
There are approximately
9,000 names in all; the list is broken up alphabetically. Use the quick links to navigate:
Aaby-Brown |
Brown-Doering |
Doherty-Greinke |
Greisen-Johnson |
Johnson-Madison< |
Madrigal-Ochs |
Ocken-Sahli |
Sahnow-Terzo |
Sahnow-Terzo |
Teske-ZwebenTo search for a specific name, click the icon in the top-right corner of each frame to open the spreadsheets in a new window, then use the Google Docs search bar. (We know, it's not ideal—but it's better than a PDF file. Trust us.)
We went through the list to determine the highest-paid city employees. In all,
599 city workers made at least
$100,000 last year, three more than did last year. The median family income for a household of one in Portland, according to city Housing Bureau guidelines, is roughly $50,000.
Nine of the top 20 highest-paid employees are
bureau directors. Former Portland Bureau of Transportation Director
Sue Keil—now serving as Parks Director—topped the list at
$190,000 in base pay.
Five of the top 20 are managers in the Portland Fire Bureau (not counting Chief
John Klum, who comes in at No. 12 on the list with
$164,000 in gross pay).
Three are members of the Portland Police Bureau, including
Chief Mike Reese ($169,000) and the employee who claimed the most overtime, police officer
Ronald Hoesly. (As former
Oregonian reporter Ryan Frank noted
last year in a similar roundup, Hoesly, a motorcycle cop, "rack[ed] up extra time in traffic court, traffic control at parades and on special patrols for drunken drivers and seat belt scofflaws.") Thanks to $70,000 he made in overtime last year, Hoesly was the city's third-best paid employee.
None of the elected City Commissioners cracked the top 100. Mayor
Sam Adams, with his $119,000 salary, came in at No. 172.
Top 20 Highest-Paid City of Portland Employees
| Name | Job Title | Base Pay | OT Pay | Premium Pay | Adjusted Gross |
| Susan Keil | Transportation Director | $190,172.87 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $190,172.87 |
| David Shaff | Water Utility Director | $183,872.44 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $183,872.44 |
| Ronald Hoesly | Police Officer | $71,805.99 | $70,234.43 | $40,219.96 | $182,260.38 |
| Kenneth Rust | Chief Administrative Officer - OMF | $181,699.64 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $181,699.64 |
| Yvonne Deckard | Human Resources Director | $179,886.77 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $179,886.77 |
| Susan Anderson | Planning & Sustainability Director | $178,997.12 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $178,997.12 |
| Linda Meng | City Attorney | $175,126.65 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $175,126.65 |
| Dean Marriott | Environmental Services Director | $171,915.89 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $171,915.89 |
| Michael Reese | Police Chief | $169,169.53 | $1,307.84 | $0.00 | $170,477.37 |
| Mark Greinke | Chief Technology Officer - BTS | $168,491.58 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $168,491.58 |
| John Klum | Fire Chief | $163,558.77 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $163,558.77 |
| John Nohr | Fire Division Chief | $139,200.43 | $20,843.80 | $0.00 | $160,044.23 |
| Zahra Santner | Parks & Recreation Director | $159,872.19 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $159,872.19 |
| Andrew Miller | Housing/Community Development Oper Mg | $154,620.83 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $154,620.83 |
| Mark Schmidt | Fire Division Chief | $138,569.63 | $15,121.42 | $0.00 | $153,691.05 |
| Paul Scarlett | Development Services Director | $152,140.43 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $152,140.43 |
| Fabian Jackson | Fire Investigator | $87,713.45 | $59,090.54 | $4,461.95 | $151,265.94 |
| Scott Fisher | Fire Division Chief | $139,314.40 | $10,656.10 | $0.00 | $149,970.50 |
| Jeffrey Bancroft | Fire Chief, Deputy | $125,235.44 | $24,091.93 | $582.40 | $149,909.77 |
Portland Employee Salaries: Aaby-Brown
Aaby-Brown |
Brown-Doering |
Doherty-Greinke |
Greisen-Johnson |
Johnson-Madison |
Madrigal-Ochs |
Ocken-Sahli |
Sahnow-Terzo> |
Sahnow-Terzo |
Teske-Zweben
Portland Employee Salaries: Brown-Doering
Aaby-Brown |
Brown-Doering |
Doherty-Greinke |
Greisen-Johnson |
Johnson-Madison |
Madrigal-Ochs |
Ocken-Sahli |
Sahnow-Terzo> |
Sahnow-Terzo |
Teske-Zweben
Portland Employee Salaries: Doherty-Greinke
Aaby-Brown |
Brown-Doering |
Doherty-Greinke |
Greisen-Johnson |
Johnson-Madison |
Madrigal-Ochs |
Ocken-Sahli |
Sahnow-Terzo> |
Sahnow-Terzo |
Teske-Zweben
Portland Employee Salaries: Greisen-Johnson
Aaby-Brown |
Brown-Doering |
Doherty-Greinke |
Greisen-Johnson |
Johnson-Madison |
Madrigal-Ochs |
Ocken-Sahli |
Sahnow-Terzo> |
Sahnow-Terzo |
Teske-Zweben
Portland Employee Salaries: Madrigal-Ochs
Aaby-Brown |
Brown-Doering |
Doherty-Greinke |
Greisen-Johnson |
Johnson-Madison |
Madrigal-Ochs |
Ocken-Sahli |
Sahnow-Terzo> |
Sahnow-Terzo |
Teske-Zweben
Portland Employee Salaries: Ocken-Sahli
Aaby-Brown |
Brown-Doering |
Doherty-Greinke |
Greisen-Johnson |
Johnson-Madison |
Madrigal-Ochs |
Ocken-Sahli |
Sahnow-Terzo> |
Sahnow-Terzo |
Teske-Zweben
Portland Employee Salaries: Sahnow-Terzo
Aaby-Brown |
Brown-Doering |
Doherty-Greinke |
Greisen-Johnson |
Johnson-Madison |
Madrigal-Ochs |
Ocken-Sahli |
Sahnow-Terzo> |
Sahnow-Terzo |
Teske-Zweben
Portland Employee Salaries: Teske-Zweben
Aaby-Brown |
Brown-Doering |
Doherty-Greinke |
Greisen-Johnson |
Johnson-Madison |
Madrigal-Ochs |
Ocken-Sahli |
Sahnow-Terzo> |
Sahnow-Terzo |
Teske-Zweben
A-D ends at the Bs...
Looks iike a few got truncated. I'll get that fixed.
This is interesting. Any way to find out how this compares to other cities of the same relative size such as San Jose?
#1 Susan Keil managing Ellis McCoy. Makes you wonder.
Also - Fireman Randy - what is his combined income from Fire Department and Commisioner positions?
It will be very difficult to compare cities and duties because of the various ways work is accomplished. Portland is very large compared to most on the west coast. Seattle appears large but is actually a number of smaller entities close together. A city in CA will have to pay more than a city in Texas, etc. Studies are always a big part of negotiations. Audits are not uncommon as well as fairly constant reviews of a departments performance. It is not unusual to find a manager that is no longer useful and that can be an issue. This is where upper levels can fail to represent the taxpayer. For the most part a good product is delivered by our local government. Look into citizen advisory if you are still interested in a better deal for your dollar.
When you have cops on the beat and firemen making six figure salaries, it's quite clear there is a problem with fiscal responsibility. And there are close to 600 city employees making over $100K? Did you say 600??? And a lot of them get to retire making more money than what they are making now?? I can't fathom how these salaries are justified. I know....lets grease some employee benefit consulting firm into convincing our city officials that these pay levels are justified. And lets not forget the county, state, and federal positions too. And people wonder why we have a problem?
Paying good money to the people who put their lives on the line in the service of the public good sounds like pretty good policy to me.
Plenty of people in the private sector have made comparable money producing pointless, useless crap. Myself among them.
Teaching and soldiering are a couple other fields where people are expected to do important work while getting paid diddly. It's upside-down from the way it ought to be.
While I don't necessarily begrudge public safety officials high salaries, why does the Fire Bureau have more managers among the highest paid than the Police Bureau? The PPB has a much bigger workforce that is much busier and more frequently in harm's way (not many fires to respond to these days).