It’s no secret the county budget is tight. Accounting for roughly 1 percent of the budget is the base salary of the top 25 highest-paid county employees.
Chautauqua County has a 2013 budget of roughly $230 million. According to numbers gathered from See Through NY, the total base pay for those 25 employees was $2,338,008 in 2013. The number is a 2.8 percent increase over the base pay for the 25 highest-paid county employees in 2012. It is an 8.4 percent increase from 2009.
Holding steady as the highest paid positions in Chautauqua County are a psychiatrist at No. 1 and the district attorney at the No. 2 spot, although the base salaries for those positions have fluctuated over the years.
The following are the 25 highest-paid positions in Chautauqua County for 2013, as well as the salary for the position, as collected from See Through NY:
Psychiatrist, $162,894
District attorney, $140,428
Physical therapy director for the Chautauqua County Home, $96.164
Director of Public Facilities, $95,353
Director of Health and Human Resources, $95,187
Assistant district attorney, $94,949
Assistant district attorney, $94,509
Sheriff’s Office sergeant, $93,657
Sheriff’s Office sergeant, $91,937
Director of Human Resources, $89,441
Administrator of the Chautauqua County Home, $88,880
Sheriff’s Office command pilot, $88,866
Director of Mental Hygiene, $88,791
Chautauqua County general employee, $87,709
Chautauqua County Department of Planning and Economic Development director, $87,506
Deputy Director of the Department of Public Facilities, $87,143
Director of child support enforcement for the Department of Social Services, $85,918
Chautauqua County executive, $85,000
Sheriff’s Office deputy, $84,824
Assistant District Attorney, $84,310
Chautauqua County sheriff, $83,820
Clinical Director for the Office of Mental Health, $83,611
Chautauqua County general employee, $82,884
Executive Director for the Office of Mental Health, $82,487
Director of the Chautauqua County Alcohol and Substance Abuse Clinic, $81,740
A phone call to the director of Human Resources regarding the titles of the two general employees was not immediately returned.
Comparatively, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties’ top 25 highest-paid positions also account for roughly 1 percent of their respective budgets. Cattaraugus County has a 2013 budget of roughly $218.5 million. Allegany County’s 2013 budget is roughly $114.8 million.
In Allegany County, the highest-paid employee is the district attorney, whose 2013 salary is $141,207 according to See Through NY. Making $108,754, and the No. 2 highest-paid employee in Allegany County is a certified registered nurse practitioner for the sheriff’s office.
Similarly, in Cattaraugus County, the highest-paid employee is the district attorney, whose salary is $143,133 for 2013, according to See Through NY. The second highest-paid county employee is a professional engineer who is in charge of engineering for the county’s highway division. The position is being paid $114,883 for 2013.
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