CAO tops list of highest-paid RDOS employees

The regional district CAO tops the list of employees collecting the most bucks last year.

The $130,893 salary of CAO William Newell, of the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, was included in a province-ordered financial disclosure. Every year public bodies publish their statement of financial information (SOFI). Included are salary and expense details of employees who earn $75,000 and up.

Public works manager Doug French is next in line with $101,728 earned in 2012. Chief water distribution operator David Carlson earned $15,863 less than French with a salary of $85,865. Employees Mark Woods, Donna Butler and Tim Bouwmeester were the only other employees to collect more than $80,000 a year.

Beneath this are eight staff members with salaries from $79,234 (Emergency services supervisor Dale Kronebusch) all the way down to $75,598 (Building official Anton Wolf).

The regional district also reported the salaries of its directors with chair Dan Ashton at the top with $41,563 who also filed $4,611 in expenses. Ashton took a leave of absence after being elected as Penticton's newest MLA on May 14. He is expected to resign sometime in June. An election will be held then for a new chair and vice-chair.

There are 32 directors who sit on the regional board. Director Mark Pendergraft made the most of this bunch with $35,902. The person who earned the least was Director Tom Chapman with only $142.

Director Brad Hope expenses bill of $12,224 was almost half of the $27,398 he earned in 2012. Coming in second is Pendergraft with a $10,585 bill for expenses.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Shannon Quesnel at squesnel@infotelnews.ca, call 250-488-3065 or tweet @shannonquesnel1