Police make up 19 of Trumbull’s 20 highest paid employees

TRUMBULL — Police department personnel once again dominated the town’s top salary list for 2022.

Nineteen of the top 20 town earners are with the police department, with only Director of Finance Maria Pires, at $156,131, cracking the list at 17, according to data from the town’s finance department. The police figure includes base pay, overtime and other miscellaneous pay.

The top town salary belongs to police officer Thomas Dzurenda at $312,668 with $87,028 in base salary, and $115,802 in overtime and $100,878 in miscellaneous pay encompassing the majority of his pay.

Twelve more police department members followed before Chief Michael Lombardo came in at 14 with $159,808 — $132,393 in base pay and $23,341 in accruals accounting for most of the total gross salary.

“We have excellent police officers, and excellent police leadership,” First Selectman Vicki Tesoro said. “Trumbull is a very safe community, and I’m proud of our police officers for the job they do every day to keep our community safe.”

Tesoro said Trumbull, like many communities, is experiencing police staff shortages and these shortages will lead to additional overtime. Traditionally, she said, the police have been among the highest wage earners in Trumbull and other communities.

“The previous administration in Trumbull took away pensions from newly hired officers, so we have increased our defined contribution match to 10 percent for our police,” Tesoro said. “We have also initiated a study to determine the feasibility of bringing back some form of defined benefit plan to help with retention issues in our department.”

Trumbull Police Lt. Brian Weir said the department is experiencing staffing shortage issues.

“In order to cover mandatory shifts of minimum staffing, officers are having to work mandatory overtime to cover these extra shifts that would otherwise be covered by a fully staffed department,” Weir said.

The amount of pay these officers make, is in part due to these officers working the mandatory overtime to cover these extra shifts, Weir said.

“The police department runs around the clock, to include nights, weekends, holidays, inclement weather. So there is mandatory staffing coverage needed 24 hours a day, well above the typical ‘9 to 5,’ 40-hour work week,” Weir said.

Weir added that the total income includes their salaries, overtime, and extra duty assignments. Extra duty assignments – such as security details and road construction — are not paid for by the town but are paid for by private contractors.

Each of the police personnel — aside from the police chief and assistant chief — on the list earned overtime, with those payments ranging from $115,802 to $19,000.

After Dzurenda, comes Communications Officer Robert Capone at $248,442; Communications Officer Susan Hamilton at $217,425; Detective Rocco Testi at $206,537; Sgt. Robert Harry with $198,160; Communications Officer

Robert Lee at $187,931; police officer Gary Yocher at $183,054; Lt. Brian Weir with $180,742; Sgt. Timothy Fedor at $178,094; police officer Francisco Jimenez at $169,642; police officer Jack Moramarco with $162,747; Sgt. Brian Federowicz at $161,469; and police officer James Sota at $160,870.

After the chief in 14th place, comes Sgt. Michael Pires with $158,118, followed by Sgt. Paul Driscoll at $157,584, Sgt. Robert Coppola with $153,846, Communications Officer David Skoog with $153,513 and Assistant Chief Glenn C. Byrnes with $147,792 in 20th.