Police chief gets 8 percent raise, three-year contract
UPPER POTTSGROVE >> After three years of working on a year-to-year contract, police Chief Francis X. Wheatley received a three-year contract and an 8 percent raise from township commissioners.
The vote came Dec. 17 after an hour-long executive session closed to the public, which the law allows for the discussion of personnel matters.
Wheatley has been doing double-duty since his predecessor, Carol Lewis resigned to take a job in Valley Township earlier this month.
But that’s now why he got the raise, said Commissioners Chairman Trace Slinkerd.
Taking on acting manager duties “was in his contract,” Slinkerd said. That contract was year-to-year affair and called for Wheatley to be paid $97,000 in 2018 and $97,479 in 2019.
Instead, Wheatley got a three-year-deal that raises his 2019 salary to $105,000.
He will also receive longevity bonuses of 1 percent of his salary for staying for the next three years; a 2 percent salary bonus for the three years after that; and a 3 percent bonus for the three years after that.
The township will also contribute a 3 percent match to his retirement fund.
Wheatley came to Upper Pottsgrove in November of 2015, chosen from among 48 applicants, after serving as an lieutenant in the Whitemarsh Township Police Department, where he had served for 29 years.
His starting salary was $85,000.
Born and raised in Upper Dublin as one of 10 children, Wheatley began his career as a dispatcher there and, in 1986, secured a full-time job as an officer in neighboring Whitemarsh.