District attorney heads list of top Fulton County earners

PHOTOGRAPHER: John Enger

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District Attorney Louise Sira topped the list of highest paid Fulton County employees in 2012, bringing in $123,072.

Her salary is up from $119,000 in 2011. District attorney salaries statewide are tied to judge salaries, which were increased last year.

Montgomery County and Schoharie County district attorneys Jed Conboy and James Sacket, respectively, also received pay increases in 2012, topping their counties’ wage lists as well.

Top 10

The list of Fulton County’s top wage earners:

Louise Sire, district attorney, $123,071.

Jeffrey Bouchard, director of solid waste management, $92,019.

Ernest Gagnon, director of community mental health, $81,532.

Jon Stead, county administrator, $79,551.

Denise Frederick, director of public health, $76,591.

Sheryda Cooper, commissioner of social services, $75,946.

James Mraz, planning director, $75,270.

Mark Yost, superintendent of highways and facilities, $73,630.

Rodney Montana, deputy superintendent of highways, $73,430.

Chad Brown, first assistant district attorney, $68,063.

Most of the highest paid Fulton County employees didn’t get a raise in 2012. The top 10 list is dominated by department heads making between $70,000 and $80,000, as they have for years.

Director of Solid Waste Management Jeff Bouchard, number two on the list, earned $92,000 in 2012, actually a little less than the previous year because of a small difference in hours, he said. Still, he earned about $10,000 more than the closest department head.

Bouchard feels he earns every nickel, though.

“Technically, I work a 40 hour week,” he said. “I can tell you, it’s a lot more than 40 hours.”

The 33-year county employee manages a landfill, seven transfer stations, 49 employees and 100,000 tons of waste a year. Plus, his is the only department that actually makes money for the county.

Thanks to fees collected at the transfer stations, between $34 and $56 per ton, he said his department is totally self-sufficient and separate from tax dollars.

“I cut checks to the county every year,” he said.

Over the last four years, he and the rest of the department heads had not received a cost-of-living raise. That recently changed, however. According to Personnel Director Terri Souza, the county Board of Supervisors approved a raise March 11.

All non-union workers, which includes department heads, are to receive a 2-percent raise retroactive to January 2012, which will arrive shortly in bonus checks. There will be another 2-percent raise in 2014.

Souza didn’t make the top 10 list, but as a non-union worker herself, she’s set top receive that extra pay.