PAWTUCKET — Overtime bumped up the salaries of a handful of police officers in 2006, catapulting them into the ranks of the 10 top-paid municipal employees.

But taxpayers didn’t foot the entire overtime bill. Motorists kicked in a significant amount.

Figures released by the Police Department yesterday showed that a fund fed by traffic fines accounted for $506,742 of the total overtime pay paid to Pawtucket police officers in 2006, with $167,914 going to eight of the nine police officers who made the top 10 list.

“To look at all these names, they don’t surprise me,” Police Chief George L. Kelley III said. “They’re people you see out there all the time, working.”

Of the roughly 150 officers in the Police Department, 25 will always agree to work overtime, 100 will sometimes agree and 25 will never agree, Kelley said.

The police officers on the list never refused to work overtime, Kelley said. He denied that paying them overtime from traffic fines encouraged them to write tickets.

“Some people just don’t want to go out there giving out tickets,” Kelley said.

Fines from traffic tickets issued by the Police Department generated $1,030,536 in revenue in 2006. Of that amount, $385,622 went to the state, $138,172 went to the city and the rest went into the Pawtucket Traffic Enforcement, or PTE, fund.

Ernest R. Pendergrass, a patrol officer who was the top paid municipal employee in 2006, received $53,749 from the PTE fund that year. Overtime paid by taxpayers added $10,314 to his take-home pay; overtime paid by grants, $3,184.

“Pendergrass earned every dime of that,” a city official said. “He’s one of our best officers writing tickets.”

The number of traffic accidents in the city has gone down drastically as a result of the enforcement activities paid for by the PTE fund, Kelley said.

But the fund doesn’t just pay for radar posts, Kelley said.

It also pays the overtime of police officers who write tickets and authorize towing of cars parked in violation of the on-street parking ban when it snows, or when DPW workers sweep the streets, he said.

“The street-sweeping thing –– we’ve got to put them out there,” Kelley said.

“Even the snow — who wants to stick around and work a snowstorm?”

Four of the police officers on the list –– Major Paul King, Sgt. Roy Clary, and Patrolmen Rafael Perez Jr. and John Duffin III –– were paid substantial amounts of money by private contractors, the payroll figures show.

Duffin, who received $28,506 in taxpayer-paid overtime, $2,683 in PTE overtime, and $1,067 in overtime from grants, earned another $29,160 working private traffic details.

Duffin said he has worked for Verizon, National Grid, and the Pawtucket Water Supply Board.

How does he manage to do so much overtime work?

“I keep my calendar clear,” Duffin said.” I make it my top priority.”

Of the nine police officers on the list, only one — Lt. James Halpin — didn’t earn a significant amount of overtime.

Halpin, who retired in 2006, received $48,374 in severance pay, including accrued vacation and sick time. That, along with longevity and $620 in overtime, bumped his total take-home pay to $107,107.

Similarly, the only non-police employee on the list, Janice M. Noelte, formerly Janice M. LaPorte, received $37,215 in accrued vacation time and sick pay when she retired two years ago.

In a telephone interview yesterday, LaPorte, now married to David Noelte and living in Florida, said she accrued the sick time before she was appointed city clerk.

She said she has no objection to the amount of money she received from the city being published in the newspaper. “I just don’t want them taking it back.”

Harvey E. Goulet Jr., the city’s director of administration, said he has no problem with the amount of money earned by LaPorte or any of the police officers on the top 10 list.

But Goulet said he is perturbed by the salaries paid to Pawtucket school administrators, characterizing them as costly and out of line with the salaries paid in City Hall.

“I don’t see the mayor on here at all. How come the mayor isn’t on the top ten list?” Goulet demanded.

City payroll figures show Mayor James E. Doyle was paid $86,946 in 2006 –– $43,801 less than School Supt. Hans W. Dellith.

City Finance Director Ronald L. Wunschel was paid $84,296 –– $17,551 less than school business manager Thomas J. Conlon.

“Guess what? Our financial manager here, who is over Tom Conlon, he doesn’t get $100, 000,” Goulet complained.

In an interview, Conlon made no apologies.

“Our budget is larger than the city’s,” he said. “We supervise more people than the city.”

And, compared to other, similarly sized school districts, Conlon said, administrative costs for the Pawtucket School Department are low.

Compiled by Paul Edward Parker

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

Source: Town of Pawtucket

Compiled by Paul Edward Parker

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

Source: Pawtucket School Dept.

jcastell@projo.com