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Two men were paid nearly $400,000 combined last year for having served as Windsor’s top bureaucrat, according to the province’s latest Sunshine List.
That was less than the $420,000 city taxpayers had to shell out for two chief administrative officers the previous year.
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And a former Windsor police chief who retired in early 2022 remained one of the top-paid individuals on the city’s 2023 list.
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The newest Sunshine List, published Thursday, revealed that retiring chief administrative officer Onorio Colucci and newly appointed CAO Joe Mancina together made just over $380,000 in 2023.
The city also spent roughly $450,000 on police chiefs last year, with former chief Pam Mizuno, who retired in March 2022, taking home $191,295, with $870 in taxable benefits. Current police chief Jason Bellaire made $258,500, with $15,694 in taxable benefits in 2023.
Under Ontario’s Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, any public sector employee paid $100,000 or more in the previous calendar year has their name, position, salary, and total taxable benefits publicly reported at the end of the provincial government’s fiscal year.
The province must publicize the salary information by March 31 each year.
In an interview with the Star this month, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said he could not comment on any identifiable individuals, but he did speak about salaries more generally.
“We are fiscally responsible,” he said. “Dealing with the employment matters that come with running a billion-dollar organization with 3,000 employees is sometimes difficult.
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“Decisions have to be made. But they’re always made in the interest of making sure that the organization can move forward the proper way.”
Dilkens, who was paid $209,650 last year, with $9,941 in taxable benefits, said that costs resulting from decisions of council on employment matters “were within the established salary lines of the organization.
“We didn’t increase taxes because all of a sudden we made a decision and … had additional time to pay a salary for a person who was not on the job at the time,” he said.
“We didn’t go back and ask the taxpayer for more money to offset those expenses.”
In 2022, former CAO Jason Reynar, who council turfed four months into the year, was paid $279,132 for holding the same position. Colucci made $142,204 that year for taking the helm from Reynar. Combined, the city spent $421,356 on CAOs in 2022.
Reynar had been hired to replace Colucci following his retirement in 2021. After Reynar’s termination, Colucci returned to his post until a new permanent CAO could be found.
Colucci was paid $146,700 for four months on the job in 2023. For comparison, his salary in his final full year of work in 2020 was $285,990.
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Joe Mancina, then-city treasurer and chief financial officer, was appointed Windsor’s new CAO in May 2023.
He was paid $268,734 last year, with $12,155 in taxable benefits.
The data released this week does not specify how much of Mancina’s pay was for his time as treasurer and how much was for his first eight months as CAO.
At the time of her retirement in March 2022, Mizuno said she was bowing out halfway through her five-year contract to spend more time with her two daughters.
She was paid $266,536 in 2022, with $4,144 in taxable benefits for three months on the job before her retirement.
Combined with current police chief Bellaire’s earnings, Windsor taxpayers in 2023 paid $449,795 for the two Windsor police chief listings.
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Former Windsor Public Library CEO Kitty Pope, whose unexpected retirement was confirmed last May, was paid $195,384 in 2023, with $782 in taxable benefits — up from her 2022 earnings of $169,150 and $1,024 in taxable benefits, despite having worked for only five months last year. Retirement packages are common among both the public and private sectors.
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Former Windsor-Detroit Tunnel Corporation CEO Carolyn Brown, whose contract reportedly ended in July, took home $151,152 in salary, with $4,040 in taxable benefits. Her replacement, Tal Czudner, does not appear on the 2023 Sunshine List.
In addition to Dilkens, Mancina, and Bellaire, eight people in city-funded positions had salaries exceeding $200,000 last year.
They are: former city solicitor Shelby Askin Hager, who Dilkens terminated using strong mayor powers in November, with $241,789, plus $7,261 in taxable benefits; former city engineer Chris Nepszy, also fired using strong mayor powers in November, with $236,803, plus $6,403 in taxable benefits; commissioner of human and health services Andrew Daher ($208,494/$7,886); commissioner of economic development and innovation Jelena Payne ($215,867/$7,922); commissioner of community services Ray Mensour ($215,867/$6,986); city clerk Steve Vlachodimos ($223,755/$1,595); and deputy police chiefs Jason Crowley ($211,003/$16,086) and Frank Providenti ($241,796/$10,806).
In a news release on Thursday, the city said its reported salary disclosures “in many cases” include “one-time payments that do not form part of the normal ongoing base salary of employees, such as acting pay, overtime, retroactive payments, adjustments required by pay equity legislation, and/or settlements.
The City of Windsor currently employs 4,133 staff. Of those, 995 appear on the Sunshine List, and 416 of those top earners work for the Windsor Police Service.
tcampbell@postmedia.com
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