The 2018 City of Greensboro salary list has some changes at the top and bottom.
Coliseum Director Matt Brown has been the highest paid city employee for years and, on Jan. 1, Brown received the largest raise of any city employee for the past year – raising him from the $288,445 he was paid in 2017 to $324,500 in 2018. That’s a raise of $36,055, and the result is that Brown is being paid $130,240 more than his boss, City Manager David Parrish, who is paid $194,260.
The City Council has had several discussions on salary compression, which is when new employees are paid more than more experienced employees, but there doesn’t seem to be a word for a salary situation where an employee is paid $130,240 more than his boss. Brown is the first city employee to be paid over $300,000 a year. In 2008, Brown’s salary was $212,000, so he has done pretty well as far as raises go in the past 10 years. Former City Manager Denise Turner Roth gave Brown a $51,000 raise in 2013, shortly before she resigned to take a job with the Obama administration.
In addition to running the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, Brown is also in charge of the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts, including its construction.
The other big change at the top is that Parrish replaced Jim Westmoreland as city manager and in the second position on the city salary list. Westmoreland retired on April 30 and Parrish was briefly interim city manager before being named city manager on June 5. In 2017, Parrish was number five on the list as an assistant city manager with a salary of $153,589.
Third on the list is City Attorney Tom Carruthers at $180,000. In 2017, the Rhino Times listed the salary for Carruthers as $179,800, but it should have been $173,800. Carruthers received the raise to his current salary on Dec. 1, 2017. Carruthers is the only city employee other than the city manager who works directly for the City Council; all other city employees work for the city manager and their salaries are set by the city manager not the City Council.
Fourth on the list is Police Chief Wayne Scott, who was being paid $157,744 in 2017 and his current salary is $164,544. Both the police chief and the Coliseum director report directly to the city manager; the other department heads report to one of the three assistant city managers. Because of the retirement of Westmoreland, the city has two assistant city manager – Chris Wilson at $146,524 and Barbara Harris at $146,103 – and one interim assistant city manager – Steven Drew, who is also water resources director and is being paid $153,442. Before being named interim assistant city manager, Drew was being paid $146,131 as water resources director.
There are always some salary issues at the top of the list where some department heads are paid more than the assistant city managers they report to, such as Fire Chief Bobby Nugent, whose salary is $153,720.
At the low end of the salary list there are also some changes, as Greensboro is raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour or $31,000 a year. Raises for the lowest paid full-time employees to $15 an hour also necessitated raising the salaries of supervisors and employees with more experience.
For a full list, click on the link below.
In regard to recent Yost newspaper experience…It was about a ditto of my recent adventures with the Greensboro News and Record, except that when they said missed paper would be delivered with the next day’s paper…I didn’t get the “next day paper or the missed paper the day before! After subscribing for 50 years, I finally had all the frustration I could stand on almost a daily experience, so I canceled the end of March and requested refund. I got a check for $52.13 within a week and by the next week I got notice from my bank that the N&R check had been RETURNED plus a $12.00 return check fee! It took another month to finally get that mess straighten out after emailing everyone from the editor down to finally Accounting. Now I am getting monthly calls to find out why I cancelled and/or to come back. No one can believe that the Greensboro News and Record does not have the funds to pay out a mere $52. What does that tell us about their financial situation…maybe it will improve with the sale of their Davie Street property, but I don’t see any hope for their delivery issues. PS. If you want a N&R fix, do not use the green coin boxes that sale papers. They are another rip off taking money, but not opening to get paper! Purchase at a drug store or grocery store and stop donating your money in those ancient boxes!