SF city employees’ salary data for the 2023-24 fiscal year just became available, and Mayor Breed London Breed is nowhere near the top of the list. But the top of that list does have an SFPD officer who made $180,000 in salary pay, but $465,000 in overtime pay.

At the end of last week, the City and County of San Francisco released its annual salary data for all city employees, as they do every year around this time. And as every year, the media points out that Mayor London Breed is not even close to being the city’s highest-paid employee, even with the total compensation package of $469,000 she received last year.

As the Chronicle reports, the highest-paid city employee last year was chief executive and investments officer for the city’s retirement services department Alison Romano, who made $842,000 in total compensation for the previous fiscal year (July 2023-June 2024). The head of the retirement services department is always this highest-paid city employee, as they oversee a massive investment portfolio on which tens of thousands of people rely, and their salary is money well-spent.

But some of the other high city employee salaries may be money less well-spent. Consider that the city’s third highest-paid employee is SFPD Sergeant Frank Harrell, who made $765,000 — though nearly $450,000 of that was overtime pay alone. A separate report in the Chronicle explores the eyebrow-raising case of  SFPD Sergeant Dennis Lai, who has a salary of $180,000, yet managed to pull in $636,000, thanks to an astonishing $456,000 in overtime pay.

Because of overtime pay, these and many other SFPD officers made significantly more last year than SFPD Chief Bill Scott. Scott was paid $547,000 last year, and is not eligible for overtime pay.

And when it comes to total compensation, Mayor Breed is nearly the 200th employee down on the list.

Overtime pay is largely the reason for this, as many city employees in first responder departments like the police force, Sheriff’s Office, and fire department are asked to work overtime to make up for staffing shortages.

The SF Sheriff’s Office was uniquely dependent on overtime staffing last year. The Chron found that one deputy sheriff made more than $400,000 last year in overtime alone (again, that’s more than Mayor Breed’s total compensation package).  On average, sheriff’s deputies bolstered their salaries by about a third last year with overtime pay, and the Chron adds that “all but one” sheriff’s deputy received overtime pay last year.

Ironically, for all of the power they wield, members of the SF Board of Supervisors are among the lowest-paid elected officials in the city. The supervisors are paid $163,000 annually, with a benefits package worth an average of around $64,000.

Related: SF Police, Sheriffs Making Bank On Overtime, Some With Take-Home Pay Exceeding $500K [SFist]

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