The airport is where the money is, at least as far as paychecks at quasi-public state agencies in Rhode Island are concerned.

A Providence Journal review of payroll records from 10 quasi-public state agencies found that employees at the Rhode Island Airport Corporation had the highest average paychecks in 2007, as well as having 4 of the 10 highest paid employees and 42 of the 100 highest paid.

Airport employees also land a fair share of overtime dollars, although those who drive a bus or work at the state’s Central Landfill rake in more.

Generally speaking, quasi-public state agencies are formed by the state but have at least partially separate legal identities, such as the ability to borrow money independently or to be sued separately from the state. The quasi-public agencies often look more like businesses than departments of state government. In Rhode Island, they do things such as run airports, operate transit buses and help first-time house buyers get mortgages.

Under state law, employees of the quasi-public agencies are public employees, and certain information from their personnel files is part of the public record. That includes their names, job titles and earnings information.

The Journal’s examination of the payrolls of quasi-public agencies follows earlier looks at state, municipal and public school employees. Some quasi-public agencies — including the state colleges and the public television station — process their payrolls through the state Department of Administration. The 10 agencies that are the subject of today’s review handle their own payrolls.

The highest paid at those 10 agencies last year was Mark P. Brewer, president and chief executive officer of the airport corporation. His $243,798 paycheck made him one of the highest paid of all state employees.

To make a direct comparison, the Journal also looked at 2006 earnings, because those were available for all state, municipal and school employees, as well as workers at the quasi-public agencies.

In that year, Brewer was paid $254,318. That trailed only James E. Baron, the men’s basketball coach at URI, who grossed $301,324. The highest paid public school employee that year was Donnie W. Evans, the former Providence schools superintendent, who grossed $190,742. Among municipal employees, the top earner was Michael J. Day, deputy assistant fire chief in Providence, although a substantial portion of his $186,541 in earnings was severance pay after he died on the job.

In 2007, the airport claimed the top three spots among employees of quasi-public agencies.

After Brewer, second-place went to Peter Frazier, the corporation’s lawyer. Frazier, whose pay totaled $192,536, also filled in as president after Brewer left to head the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in New Hampshire. As a result, Brewer did not collect a full year’s salary.

Third was Brian Schattle, senior vice president and chief financial officer, who grossed $177,200.

A fourth airport employee, spokeswoman Patricia A. Goldstein, was the 10th-highest paid, grossing $141,654.

“The salaries may seem high, but that’s the reality of recruiting in the aviation field,” said Kevin A. Dillon, current airport corporation president. “You necessarily have to go and try to recruit folks away from other airports.”

He said a study completed last month showed Rhode Island airport salaries to be within the range of similar airports.

The biggest user of overtime last year, in terms of the percentage of total payroll, was the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, which runs the state’s dump. The corporation averaged overtime that was 22 percent of each worker’s total pay last year.

That use of overtime was a strategic decision, according to Michael O’Connell, the agency’s executive director.

The state requires the dump to operate 10 1/2 hours a day on weekdays, plus 6 1/2 hours on Saturdays. Instead of creating 40-hour-a-week schedules that cover all those hours, the corporation just has employees put in overtime.

“Rather than hire a bunch of extra people and pay them a benefit package, which you never recover, it makes more sense to pay overtime,” said O’Connell. “Economically, it always pays to run overtime than to hire more people.”

But, he said, the use of overtime is a high-wire act.

“Zero overtime — zero means you have too many people,” O’Connell said. “Too much and you’re wearing them out.”

Although Resource Recovery doles out the most overtime as a percentage of payroll, the biggest bucks come from the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, which employs the overtime king.

Last year, RIPTA paid more than $5.6 million in overtime, with most of that going to the people who drive transit buses and the vans that transport people with disabilities.

More than half that overtime was planned, accord to Mark R. Therrien, a RIPTA assistant general manager. “In our industry, scheduled overtime is a strategic call,” he said. Part of that strategy is scheduling for a work day that has to be longer than eight hours to accommodate the schedules of RIPTA’s biggest customers, commuters who get rides before and after their own eight-hour work days.

Tops last year among all overtime earners at the quasi-public agencies was bus driver William A. Blair, who added $49,044 in overtime to his base pay of $48,013. With other earnings, his pay for the year totaled $98,342.

“Bill Blair never leaves the place practically,” said Therrien. “He’s the most senior driver at RIPTA, and he works any overtime he can.” Schedules and overtime are driven by seniority, and, Therrien said, Blair arranges his regular work schedule to be available at the times that have the most unplanned overtime, usually the result of someone calling in sick.

The airport was the third-biggest user of overtime, with about 10 percent of its payroll going to overtime payments.

“It’s something that any manager wants to shrink down as much as possible,” said airport president Dillon.

He said three factors beyond his control cause overtime situations.

One is snow removal. “We don’t have the option of saying we’re just going to close down” and wait out a storm, he said.

Another is maintaining adequate numbers of security personnel at times they weren’t expected to be needed. “When you have delayed flights, I have to hold people over,” he said.

The third is the airport fire department. Airport certification requires staffing levels to be maintained, even when workers call in sick or are absent for other reasons.

Besides resembling businesses in what they do, the quasi-public agencies were similar in how employees are paid.

In many state agencies, the top earner is a long-time rank-and-file employee, who has a high base salary because of longevity and high overtime earnings because seniority is often a factor in selecting employees for extra shifts.

But at 8 of the 10 quasi-publics looked at by The Journal, the head of the agency was the top earner. At the other two, the top earner was a high-ranking deputy.

Besides the Airport Corporation, Resource Recovery and RIPTA, the other quasi-publics looked at by The Journal were:

•The Rhode Island Convention Center Authority, which runs the convention center and civic center arena in Providence;

•The Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, which helps attract businesses and keep them here;

•The Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corporation, which helps schools, hospitals and similar agencies secure financing for building projects;

•Rhode Island Housing, the mortgage and housing agency;

•The Narragansett Bay Commission, which runs the sewer systems and treatment facilities that serve all or part of 10 communities in the Providence area;

•The Rhode Island Student Loan Authority, which provides student loans for higher education;

•The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority, which maintains the Pell and Mount Hope Bridges.

pparker@projo.com