Who makes the most money at Arizona universities and cities? Some top $1 million in pay

A city administrator who resigned after agreeing to plead guilty to a misdemeanor. An ASU football coach whose tenure ended amidst an NCAA investigation. U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema moonlighting as an ASU professor.

These are some of the people whose salaries you’ll find in the fifth iteration of The Arizona Republic’s public employee salary database, a searchable tool that displays salary information for more than 100,000 people from 28 government employers.

Most of this data comes from the 2022 fiscal year (or from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022). 

You can use the tool to find the mayor’s salary in the city where you live — it covers employees in more than a dozen municipalities around the state, including Phoenix, Glendale, Tempe, Scottsdale and Chandler, along with several counties, the state itself and Arizona’s three public universities.

Here are some top takeaways from the latest version.

City, town managers had top salaries everywhere

If you want to make the most money in local government, aim for the manager’s office.

Of the cities that reported data for fiscal year 2022, city managers in Scottsdale and Mesa — James Thompson and Christopher Brady, respectively — were some of the highest-paid employees, with base salaries of more than $290,000.

Gilbert town manager Patrick Banger’s annual salary was more than $330,000 as of last summer. A town employee initially told The Republic that figure represented Banger’s base rate in the 2022 fiscal year, but a town staff member later said that salary figure was from the 2024 fiscal year.

In Phoenix, which reported data for the 2022 calendar year, City Manager Jeffrey Barton had an annual rate of more than $372,000. That’s nearly $100,000 more than the next highest-salaried employee — Assistant City Manager Lori Bays.

Heads of public safety departments and police chiefs, directors of public works departments, presiding municipal judges and city attorneys were among the top 10 highest-salaried positions in many cities.

Philip Rodriguez — Yuma’s former city administrator — was the city’s highest-salaried employee when he resigned after agreeing to plead guilty to a misdemeanor in a crash originally charged as a hit-and-run. He made more than $214,000.

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How much did ASU, UA coaches make?

Herm Edwards, Arizona State University’s former head football coach, had the highest salary of the more than 100,000 employees in the 28 public entities The Republic analyzed.

His base salary was nearly $4 million, and he might have made more than that — ASU did not provide data for its staff that would show whether they made more money on top of their base salary amounts.

Edwards left the university’s football program in September 2022 in what was termed a “mutual parting of the ways” by ASU's former Athletic Director Ray Anderson (whose salary was just under $1 million in the 2022 fiscal year). An NCAA investigation into the football program’s alleged recruiting violations under Edwards led ASU to announce a self-imposed bowl ban for the 2023 season.

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Three other coaches had base salaries higher than $1 million; none of them coached women’s sports. They were Bobby Hurley, ASU’s men’s basketball head coach, who made $2.6 million; Tommy Lloyd, University of Arizona’s men’s basketball head coach, who made $2.4 million; and Jedd Fisch, UA’s former head football coach, who made $1.8 million. Data from UA is as of October 2021.

Adia Barnes — UA’s women’s basketball coach — was the highest-salaried women’s sports coach at all three public universities, with a $1 million annual rate.

Northern Arizona University was the only public university where the university president’s salary was higher than those of all its athletics staff. NAU’s football program plays in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level of college football in the U.S., while both ASU and UA play in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

In the 2022 fiscal year, NAU’s football head coach made $236,900. That’s 6% of Edwards’ salary at ASU in the same fiscal year, and about half of what NAU President José Luis Cruz Rivera made.

Who are the highest-paid Maricopa County employees?

Former Maricopa County Manager Joy Rich was the highest-salaried employee in the county in the 2022 fiscal year, making a little over $282,000.

Every other position in the county’s top 20 highest-paid relates to health care.

Medical examiners, including the chief and deputy chiefs, made up nearly half the list.

The rest was composed of positions related to psychiatry, medical directors, and a physician. All of these employees' salaries were greater than $200,000.

Highest-paid state employees are in retirement system

Michael Viteri, Mark Steed and Paul Matson were the three highest-paid state employees in the 2022 fiscal year, each making around $300,000. Viteri and Matson serve as the state retirement system’s chief investment officer and director, respectively, while Steed works in the public safety personnel retirement system.

The chief medical officers of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the Department of Health Services and the Department of Economic Security were among the top 20 highest-salaried employees in the state.

Positions related to psychiatry — most in the Health Department — made up 35% of that top 20 list.

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What to know about the data

Reporters sent dozens of requests to individual agencies, asking for detailed data for each employee. The Republic compiled the information into a comprehensive, searchable tool.

Prior releases of this data revealed that a university paid a dean $1 million while he was on administrative leave following a sexual assault charge and uncovered pay inequities in the Secretary of State’s Office.

Most data in this year's version of the tool covers the 2022 fiscal year (July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022). There are some exceptions: Phoenix publishes its employee compensation data online, and reported data for the 2022 calendar year ending Dec. 31, 2022. Data for Prescott comes from the 2023 fiscal year. Gilbert’s annual rates are for the 2024 fiscal year, but the city’s actual wages data is for the 2022 fiscal year.

Some employers reported snapshots of data from before the end of the fiscal year — for example, UA provided data as of October 2021 — and some employees may have received a raise before the end of the fiscal year.

Tucson, Yuma County and Flagstaff provided data insufficient to include in this compilation. Reporters will include this data if and when the entities provide updated information.

If you want to request salary data from a government employer not included in this database — or if you see something in this data that merits further investigation, or something an employer reported inaccurately — reach out to The Republic by filling out the form at https://gannett-nxuao.formstack.com/forms/arizona_government_salaries_fy_2021_tips_and_corrections.

Reach Sahana Jayaraman at Sahana.Jayaraman@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @SahanaJayaraman.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona government salaries: These are the top paid public employees