New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Police were city’s highest paid in ’23
Make up 17 of the top 20 employee salaries
WEST HAVEN — The three highestpaid West Haven employees in the 2023 fiscal year were members of the police department, according to payroll records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The city’s highest earner in the most recently concluded budget cycle was Detective Sgt. Ronald Celentano, who grossed $284,115, including $81,181 in overtime pay. Detective Tammy Murray, the second-highest earner in the 2023 budget cycle, received a gross pay of $272,367, including $142,612 in overtime pay. Murray made headlines last year as part of a team that positively identified the remains of Sarah Tatham Abbott, who had disappeared 53 years prior.
Superintendent of Schools Neil Cavallaro was the city’s fourth-highest earner, with $221,089 in earnings. Cavallaro was the only Board of Education employee to appear in the city’s top 20 earners in the 2023 fiscal year. Officer Andrzej Jakubowski rounded out the city’s top three earners with $221,331 in gross pay, including $50,213 in overtime.
The payroll information obtained by the Register does not account for how much of police officers’ gross pay includes extra duty functions, such as working at permitted events.
Although police overtime is reported in payroll information, not all of it is paid by taxpayer dollars due to vendors hiring officers for extra duty. West Haven budgeted for an increase in police manpower overtime in fiscal year 2023, budgeting for $1.5 million in police manpower overtime; in fiscal year 2022, the line item was budgeted at $1.1 million, and in fiscal year
2021, the city reported spending $1.108 million on police manpower overtime. The police overtime budget for departmental functions was $300,000 in fiscal year 2023.
Besides Cavallaro, only two other non-police city employees made the list of the 20 highest-paid employees in fiscal year 2023: water pollution operators Cedric Westry, whose gross pay was $211,238, and Calvin Wilkins, whose gross pay was $186,552.
Twelve of the highestpaid West Haven employees were among the city’s 20 highest-paid employees three years ago in fiscal year 2020. Of the other eight, two have since retired from the city’s police department. Health Director Maureen Lillis, the second highest-paid employee that year, had roughly doubled her pay through overtime as the city scrambled to address the COVID-19 pandemic. In fiscal year 2023, she was the city’s 39th highest-paid employee.
The list of West Haven’s highest-paid employees in fiscal year 2023 is as follows:
• Ronald Celentano, detective sergeant, $284,115
• Tammy Murray, detective, $272,367
• Andrzej Jakubowski, patrol officer, $221,331
• Neil Cavallaro, superintendent of schools, $221,089
• Joseph Riehl, sergeant, $213,675
• Cedric Westry, water pollution operator, $211,238
• Stephen Viele, detective, $205,241
• Michael Croce, patrol officer, $204,984
• David Hancock, lieutenant, $193,670
• Jordan Zwickler, sergeant, $192,485
• James Tortora, patrol officer, $190,582
• Steven Evora, patrol officer, $190,035
• Jeremy Meurice, sergeant, $188,649
• Brandon Butler, patrol officer, $188,471
• Joseph Romano, police captain, $188,292
• Christopher Stratton, sergeant, $188,165
• Calvin Wilkins, water pollution operator, $186,552
• Scott Kleinknecht, lieutenant, retired,
$185,218
• Joseph Perno, police chief, $184,898
• Michael Vivenzio, detective, $184,706