Politics & Government

The Highest Paid Employees At City Hall In Hercules And Pinole

The survey by the Bay Area News Group also details the "pension pickups" some government employees receive

The 10 most highly compensated employees at the city halls in Pinole and Hercules received between $163,000 and $250,000 each in salaries and benefits in 2012, according to a survey done by the Bay Area News Group.

At the top of the list in Hercules is City Manager Steven Duran, who earned a base salary of $193,293 plus medical benefits, pension payments and other extras for a total compensation of $250,022.

Seven of the top 10 employees worked in the police department.

In Pinole, the list leader is Matthew Messier in the city police department, who earned a base salary of $198,848 plus medical benefits, pension payments and other extras for a total compensation of $235,353.

The BANG survey looked at the compensation of 279,017 public employees at 330 local agencies across the Bay Area. The employees earned a total of $17.6 billion in salary and benefits.

In a story in Sunday editions, the newspapers also detailed what is known as "pension pickups." These are situations where taxpayers pay the employees' share of their pension contribution.

These pickups have been negotiated in contracts. There are 63,000 public employees in the Bay Area who have receive this benefit. In all, the "pickups" totaled $221 million in 2012.

The newspaper listed 51 Bay Area agencies that pick up the pension contribution for all their employees.

Neither Hercules nor Pinole is on the list.

The West County Wastewater District is on the list. It paid the contribution for 59 employees at a cost of $309,620.

The Western Contra Costa Transit Authority paid the contribution of its seven employees at a cost of $38,536.

BART picked up the pension contribution for 3,373 employees at a cost of $17 million.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District picked up 328 employees' contributions at a cost of $1.1 million.


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