Top Wellesley salaries include the police chief and his brother

Police Chief Terrence Cunningham said overtime pay is needed because of a detective vacancy on the Wellesley force that has been difficult to fill.

The challenge stems from the department’s high turnover rate, said the chief, who was third on the list with a salary of $165,510. In his nine years as chief, the number of officers hired — 43 — has been roughly equal to the total number in the department, he said.

‘‘We’ve turned over the department, essentially,’’ said Cunningham, who is president of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association. ‘‘This isn’t just an issue for Wellesley or Massachusetts, it’s an issue nationwide.’’

The problem is exacerbated by a state law that requires officers to live within 15 miles of the community where they work, the chief said. For Wellesley officers, that would include high-priced communities such as Weston, Newton, and Natick.

‘‘Recently it just hasn’t been attractive,’’ the chief said of a career in law enforcement. ‘‘Until the economy went upside down, people were saying, ‘Why do I want to work nights, holidays, weekends?’ ''

He said he is aware that some people will see his brother’s salary as nepotism, but noted that he didn’t hire or promote his sibling. The chief said he likewise didn’t hire his other brother, Chris, who made $89,107 last fiscal year as a Wellesley police officer.

‘‘There’s a lot of legacy in police and fire departments,’’ said Cunningham. ‘‘It’s a tradition; that’s just the way it is.’’

He said he has been careful to check with the State Ethics Commission and Wellesley’s town counsel whenever a potential conflict arises. While he is responsible for the department budget, the chief said, he leaves his brother Wayne’s overtime assignments to Deputy Chief Bill Brooks, who oversees the detectives.

He also said that detectives worked more overtime than usual last year because of three significant investigations — two drug cases, and one involving human trafficking and prostitution that was done in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Police.

Overtime is not always popular on the force, he said, and sometimes officers have to be ordered to work extra hours.

‘‘One of the biggest morale issues that I deal with is that people can’t get time off because they need to work,’’ he said.

Greg Mills, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said his board has begun looking into overtime paid to public safety workers as part of its examination of the town’s ongoing financial squeeze.

‘‘We feel that especially in looking ahead to fiscal year 2011, recognizing the challenges of achieving a balanced budget in that year, that we should if possible find ways to reduce overtime costs in the Police and Fire departments, as long as there is no compromise to public safety,’’ he said.

Fourth on the list was Richard Joyce, director of the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant, with a salary of $155,708, a 12 percent increase over the previous fiscal year.

Joyce oversees 34 employees and an annual budget of about $35 million in running the department, which distributes electricity to about 9,000 residential and 1,100 commercial customers.

Joyce said his department is charged with buying power on the market and providing it to customers at competitive rates, as well as preventing power losses and maintaining and — when necessary — upgrading the system.

He has done a good job, according to the board that oversees his department, which explains the 12 percent raise.

In July 2007, the beginning of the 2008 fiscal year, the municipal utility’s Board of Commissioners raised Joyce’s salary by 3 percent, and the rest of the increase was a performance bonus, according to chairman Michael Humphrys. The bonus was awarded because Joyce had met all of his objectives and under his leadership the plant had ‘‘an outstanding year,’’ Humphrys said in an e-mail.

For her first year as head of the town’s school system, Superintendent Bella Wong received a salary of $169,000, putting her second on the list. It represented a large boost over the previous year because of her promotion from assistant superintendent to the top job on July 1, 2007.
Other seemingly large increases have similar explanations. Adam Blumer, 12th on the list, is head of Wellesley Middle School’s social studies department. But his big salary increase for 2007-08 was due to his interim role as the middle school’s principal that year, said Wong.

Globe correspondent Chantal Mendes contributed to this report. Lisa Kocian can be reached at lkocian@globe.com.

SEARCH THE LIST of Wellesley’s 100 highest-paid town employees for 2007 and 2008 here.