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Adamowski tops list of 2018 Norwalk salaries

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Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Steven Adamowski makes a point during the Dec. 17 Board of Education meeting in City Hall.

Updated, 7:19 a.m.: Adamowski’s contract runs through June 2020.

NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Steven Adamowski is once again the biggest breadwinner in City Hall.

Adamowski tops the list of 2018 Norwalk salaries, with $273,159.89 in total earnings.  Second on the list provided Thursday by Comptroller Chitsamay Lam is the man she replaced, retired Comptroller Fred Gilden, who earned $261,286.82.

Gilden retired Dec. 3, according to an automated reply received from his e-mail account. He earned $161,187.46 in 2017, according to the list he provided last year.  His higher 2018 total arises from a retirement payout consisting of accumulated unused vacation time, Lam said in an email. Chief Financial Officer Bob Barron noted that Gilden was a 20-year employee, and the payout was more than $80,000.

Adamowski led Norwalk earners in 2016 and 2017.  His contract runs through June 2020, according to Board of Education Chair Mike Barbis.

The top 25 earners in 2018:

  1. Superintendent of Schools Steven Adamowski $273,159.89
  2. Comptroller Fred Gilden $261,286.82
  3. Norwalk Police Officer Russell Ouellette $227,431.66
  4. Norwalk Police Officer George Daley $223,623.08
  5. Norwalk Police Officer David Nieves $221,091.90
  6. Norwalk Police Officer Javier Mogollon $216,130.57
  7. Norwalk Police Sgt. Joseph Moquin $212,788.37
  8. Norwalk Police Officer Michael Dimeglio $206,205.87
  9. Norwalk Police Sgt. Gregg Scully $198,542.86
  10. Chief of Technology, Innovations and Partnerships Ralph Valenzisi $197,899.81
  11. Norwalk High School Principal Reginald Roberts $193,847.53
  12. Norwalk Public Schools Chief of School Operations Frank Costanzo $193,184.93
  13. Norwalk Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Thomas Hamilton $193,036.05
  14. Norwalk Police Lt. Praveen John $192,545.21
  15. Norwalk Police Officer Mark Suda $189,068.15
  16. Brien McMahon High School Principal Scott Hurwitz $188,942.04
  17. Norwalk Police Sgt. Peter White $188,220.59
  18. NPS Chief of Specialized Learning and Student Services Yvette Goorevitch $186,849.95
  19. Norwalk Police Sgt. James Mosher $181,769.06
  20. Norwalk Police Officer Paul Wargo $181,395.98
  21. Ponus Ridge Middle School Principal Damon Lewis $180,215.56
  22. Roton Middle School Principal Joseph Vellucci $180,215.53
  23. Nathan Hale Middle School Principal Albert Sackey $180,042.24
  24. Brien McMahon High School Assistant Principal Marie Allen $180,042.22
  25. Norwalk Police Lt. Marc Lepore $178,752.69

 

Oullette was top of the heap in 2015. That list featured many of the same names, with Scully, Mogollon, Dimeglio and Nieves in the top 10. Norwalk Police officers earn money above their base salaries by taking extra duty assignments for private companies. The city gets a 15 percent administrative fee for every hour of extra duty worked by police officers, Sgt. David Orr has said.  Officers also earn extra money through overtime.  Common Council members have said that overtime actually saves the city money as the price of benefits is high and the overtime makes the hiring of additional officers unnecessary. Overtime doesn’t count toward an officer’s pension and is often paid for by federal funds, asset forfeiture funds or state funds, officials have said.

Mayor Harry Rilling is 123rd on the list with a $146,479.57 salary, behind Barron ($172,976.34), Deputy Corporation Counsel Jeffry Spahr ($166,318.75), Norwalk Chief Building Official Bill Ireland ($162,505.72), Information Technology (IT) Director Karen DelVecchio ($162,385.70) and Assistant Planning and Zoning Director Mike Wrinn ($147,960.33) but ahead of Planning and Zoning Director Steven Kleppin, who made $143,144.95.

City of Norwalk 2018 Earnings Report-v2

Comments

18 responses to “Adamowski tops list of 2018 Norwalk salaries”

  1. Dawn

    In private industry sick and vacation accumulation is capped. But not here? Insane.

  2. M. Jeffry Spahr

    Hi Dawn — I just wanted to clarify that both sick and vacation accumulations ARE capped. Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the City and the Norwalk Assistants and Supervisors Association (NASA — the Union to which Mr. Gilden belonged) employees are only allowed to carry over 10 vacation days into the new Fiscal Year. Any vacation days ‘on the books’ beyond that are forfeited. In addition, upon retirement an employee is only allowed to receive a payout for a maximum of 60 sick days. Again, if the employee has more than this amount any potential reimbursement is forfeited. I hope this helps.

    A Happy New Year to all of Nancy on Norwalk’s readers.

  3. Piberman

    Always a special treat reading the salaries of Norwalk’s “public servants” always “climbing higher for doing the same job”. Reminds us of why we hold our elected officials in such high esteem. And why Norwalk has such a special “reputation”.

  4. Mitch Adis

    @M.Jeffry Spahr. In the private sector you can not accumulate sick days either. So, must be nice to be a City employee. They get treated better than the people who pay their salaries. Wouldn’t be so bad if they treated taxpayers with respect.

  5. Al Bore

    Do you ever ask why are taxes in Norwalk are so high, this says it all. WOW it pays to work for the city of Norwalk and it pays well really well.

  6. Al Bore

    Mr. Spahr only 60 days paid sick time, I feel for you and all the city employees. I get 5 weeks PTO each year with 5 days of carry over to the next year after 44 years in corporate America for sick, vacation, and personal time off. Happy new year and let’s have the city follow corporate America in 2019. I can’t afford your luxuries anymore I want to retire before I die.

  7. Steve

    My guess is that most of the police officer salaries are for overtime and paid by 3rd parties not taxpayer at the same time I am concerned about my he effectiveness of an employee who’s working 60+ hours a week . As for school admin, those are the salaries in the area and to keep good people one needs to be competitive. Pliiberman have you ever been positive about anything in this town or is the glass always half empty? I have not heard anything more negative about work conditions here in. Norwalk v Darien Stamford Westport etc…

  8. Ron Morris

    Steve
    Actually the police getting overtime paid for by 3rd parties and not the taxpayer is a lie that we have been told for years. This lie has been debunked time and again. Here is a post from NON from 2017 that describes the truth very well.

    https://nancyonnorwalk.com/2017/12/adamowski-tops-2017-list-of-norwalk-salaries/

    “Norwalk Police officers earn money above their base salaries by taking extra duty assignments for private companies”

    It should be noted that the taxpayer is footing the bill for these private companies in the form of higher construction contracts and higher utility rates with cop’s vs flagmen. So ultimately, the taxpayer is on the hook for every penny of this waste.

    “The city gets a 15 percent administrative fee for every hour of extra duty worked by police officers, Sgt. David Orr has said.”

    What , Sgt. David Orr has failed to say is every penny of the fee and more is spent on the administrative costs and the cost of an extra fleet of police cars with city gas and repairs, and city insurance , for the extra fleet of police cars so the cops can have the privilege of overtime.

    “Common Council members have said that overtime actually saves the city money as the price of benefits is high and there is a need to cover emergencies”

    If this were the case, I would say it is time to cut benefits.

    Norwalk had an opportunity to fix this out of control police overtime from dirt jobs but the pro union {…} Kimmel and Melendez sided with the police union instead of the taxpayer and pushed not to use flagmen at great savings and no city car and no city gas. Flagmen would actually create a safer environment vs cops, as the flagmen would actually be directing traffic unlike the cops who are sitting in the car playing on their iPhone or talking with the construction workers and not directing traffic.

    Amazing how the required education for a six-figure salary in Norwalk is only a GED. In addition, to make matters worse it seems that police departments want to hire candidate with the lowest IQ

    Court OKs Barring Smart People From Becoming Cops (Really)
    http://reason.com/blog/2013/05/01/court-oks-barring-smart-people-from-beco

    Minimum Qualifications

    Have a high school diploma or equivalency
    http://www.norwalkct.org/152/Recruitment-Employment

    Under the new policy of deleting comments which violate the policy, this comment would have been deleted in its entirety. However an insult was missed by the volunteer who moderates comments and in the interim, another commenter replied. Therefore this comment has been edited to remove the insult.

  9. Rick

    I suggested its time to look at the police dept after seeing the reports of mall riots in Ct which was just reported.

    Time to understand what Norwalk needs for expansion of its force soon.

  10. Stephen

    @ Ron Morris- Your comment comes from a place of ignorance. It’s hard to see any validity in the words you type when making mass general statements…ie: cops sitting in their cars playing on their phone or chatting w construction workers.
    In regards to your pretentious comment targeting salary and education, you should rethink that. The hours of dedication to the community taking away from their families should be applauded rather than overlooked. It takes a dedicated individual to work the shifts and hours required serving Norwalk.
    While in industry higher education often equates to higher salaries. With that said, public service industries taking care of the community (police, fire, emt, nursing…shall i go on?) are often underpaid and EARN the OT while protecting and taking care of the community. Let’s circle back for a moment to point out your assumption regarding those in public service couldn’t possibly have a higher degree.
    It saddens me to think your words are those taught to (some) youth.
    With that said… wishing you a safe holiday in which none of those “overpaid” public service jobs are needed by yours truly.

  11. steve

    Ron, I agree w/you that we indirectly pay the OT

  12. Ed

    I know this is outside of the scope of this article, but I wonder how these salaries compare to salaries in surrounding towns.

  13. Milly

    I agree with Steve – how many hours can a person work and still be physically and mentally able to do the job? Working 80+ hours a week all year – how is that possible?

  14. Rick

    one has to wonder if Norwalk police officer Phil Roselle, who was shot by a fellow officer in a 2017 was a case where long hours were involved.

    This is in line with the last comment by Milly.

  15. Otto Delupe

    The same George Daley who owns the property on Cedar street where the Cedar street market is located? Please if your making almost a 1/4 of a million dollars clean that dump up. Start with the garbage in the lot and maybe paint the building. Should be a blight violation.

  16. Ron Morris

    Stephen
    Very sorry that my FACTS seem to concern you. See the difference between my post and yours is that I present facts with a link to prove them. You on the other hand present opinions of a cop , retired cop or a family member of a cop. I find it troubling that any taxpayer would have such ignorance to support such waste at the police department unless of course they were profiting from the waste.

    Also the taxpayers need to hold ALL candidates for office come November accountable for stopping this waste.

  17. Steve

    Ron, I agree with you on the Flagmen, but while I’ve seen politicians take on teachers and sanitation workers, for practical and political reasons they are loath to do so w/police and firemen. This appears to be true w/two Democratic in Norwalk and was true of Republican politicians who state after state eviscerated teacher unions while excluding police and firemen. They do lead dangerous jobs; for cops hours of boredom interrupted by minutes of sheer terror. They primarily deal with the most negative side of life, whether it’s domestic violence, drug dealers, those w/severe psychiatric conditions or simply a dead body found in an unusual place. Likewise firemen put their lives on the line when they answer a fire, or help a trapped person out of a mangled car. However, that shouldn’t support the crazy salaries that so many are earning, 2 to 3x what other municipal workers are getting paid. Moreover with incredibly generous retirement benefits. There should be other options for contractors besides hiring cops and if cops harass the contractors there should be severe penalties. The $ don’t come out of our taxes directly but all the OT makes for overworked cops and financially overburdened contracgtors

  18. enough

    Imagine what these figures would be if teachers got paid OT.

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