Cops top town’s list of highest earners
NEW FAIRFIELD — Five of the top 10 highest paid town employees of 2020 were police officers — due in large part to overtime pay.
According to New Fairfield payroll data obtained by the News-Times, the five officers combined earned more than $150,000 in overtime pay.
Officer Kevin Rafferty — who joined New Fairfield’s police department in 2016 after more than 20 years on the Connecticut State Police force — earned around $130,039 in 2020, making him the third highest paid town employee of 2020.
About $43,716 of his earnings were from overtime — the highest amount of overtime paid to a single town employee in 2020. Rafferty’s total 2020 earnings reflect a nearly 62 percent increase over 2019, when he was the
town’s sixth highest paid employee.
Another former state trooper serving on the town’s police force, Matthew Satkowski, was New Fairfield’s fourth highest paid town employee. He made roughly
$125,304 in 2020 — about
$43,455 of which was in overtime. Satkowski has been a New Fairfield police officer since 2017.
Three other police officers made the top 10 list of highest paid town employees this year. Earning approximately
$121,167, $107,001 and $100,345 — including roughly $38,919,
$21,052, $10,454 in overtime — respectively, Officers David Koonitsky, Douglas Lange and Oscar Johnson ranked sixth, seventh and ninth on the list.
Other top earners
New Fairfield’s part-time engineer, Antonio Iadarola, topped the list of New Fairfield’s highest paid town employees of 2020 by making $193,700.
Iadarola’s earnings for the year included nearly $28,000 in overtime pay on top of a base salary of approximately $165,759 — reflecting a nearly 21 percent year-over-year pay increase.
In addition to serving as New Fairfield’s part-time engineer, Iadarola works as the full-time public works director of Danbury, where he made nearly $213,789 in 2020. In 2019, he took in more than $370,000 in taxpayer dollars through his jobs in both communities.
New Fairfield’s second highest paid employee was health director Tim Simpkins, who made about $136,231. Simpkins has been a town employee since 1987 and also serves as health director of the neighboring town of Sherman, where he worked about 12 hours a week and earned $36,053 in 2020. He was the fourth highest paid New Fairfield town employee in 2019.
The fifth highest paid town employee is finance director Ed Sbordone, who made almost $124,919 in 2020. Sbordone — who has worked for the town since 2006 — also serves on the Board of Education, but that is an unpaid volunteer position.
Tax assessor Richard Seman made nearly $102,018 in 2020, earning him a ninthplace spot on the top 10 list of highest town earners. Seman has been a New Fairfield employee since 2005.
The 10th highest paid town employee was Public Works Superintendent Russell Loudon, who earned about $99,883 in 2020 and has worked for the town for about 18 years.
Although she didn’t make the list of top 10 municipal earners this year, First Selectman Pat Del Monaco came close. Earning nearly $97,994, she was the 11th highest paid town employee in 2020.