City well staffed, staff well paid

KAMLOOPS – Nearly one-third of all city employees make more than $75,000 annually.

Accounting for more than $9.19 million in staff salaries and making up nearly half of that third are members of the fire department.

More than $56 million was paid to city employees and council in 2012 and even though expenses were reduced by about $100,000 a total of nearly $2.8 million more was paid over 2011. The bump to 2012 from 2011 includes nearly 20 more employees on the over $75,000 list, which is published as part of the city's annual statement of financial information.

CAO David Trawin is the highest paid of any city employee at just under $200,000 and another 62 employees are making over $100,000, nearly 40 of them are with the fire department. The fire department totalled about $14.1 million in salaries in 2012 while other city staffers accounted for about $20.6 million in salaries.

Top-five staff salaries (not in the fire department):
– David Trawin, Chief Administrative Officer $199,282
– Lenard Hyrcan, Community and Corporate Affairs Director $188,658
– Byron McCorkell, Director Parks and Recreation $185,803
– David Duckworth, Director of Corporate Services and Community Safety $178,095
– Sally Edwards, Finance Director $176,587

Top-five staff salaries (fire department):
– Neill Moroz, Fire Chief $146,265
– James Bell, Deputy Fire Chief $131,912
– Dennis Fayers, Assistant Fire Chief $117,917
– Dean Olstad, Chief Fire Prevention Officer $111,733
– Curtis Bossert, Assistant Fire Chief $110,649

To contact a reporter for this story, email jstahn@infotelnews.ca, call (250)819-3723 or tweet @JennStahn.