Salary database: Spartanburg city manager tops list of employees making $50k or more

Bob Montgomery, Herald-Journal
·2 min read

Editors note: The Herald-Journal will publish salary databases for Spartanburg County, the city of Spartanburg and the superintendents of our public school districts. We publish salaries of those who earn $50,000 per year or more. In large part, taxpayer dollars help pay those salaries. You can find a wealth of additional databases on the Herald-Journal's data central page. We provide this public information on our site to keep our readers well-informed. 

City Manager Chris Story again tops the list of highest-paid employees in Spartanburg.

Of 138 city employees earning over $50,000 a year, 10 of them made over $100,859 in salary and benefits in fiscal year 2021-22.

Thirty-six percent of the city employees make over $50,000 a year.

Story made $166,400 in 2020-21, and $176,384 in the fiscal year 2021-22 which ended June 30. That is a 6% increase.

Also earning a 6% increase was the city's second highest-paid employee, City Attorney Robert Coler. He made $127,720 in 2020-21, and $135,383 in 2021-22.

The employee who made the biggest pay jump among the top 10 was Public Works Director John Squires. His salary went from $78,766 in 2020-21 to $100,859 in 2021-22 - a 28% increase.

Assistant City Manager Mitch Kennedy was the third highest employee. His salary of $125,174 was unchanged.

Search City of Spartanburg salary data:See how much City of Spartanburg employees earning $50k and above make

Search Spartanburg County salary data: See what county employees make

Also unchanged were the fourth highest paid, Police Chief Alonzo Thompson, at $124,196, and the fifth highest paid, Municipal Judge Erika McJimpsey, at $119,916.

NEEDS LINK TO SPARTANBURG COUNTY STORY - 69515105007

Rounding out the top 10 were Fire Chief Marion Blackwell, $119,475; Deputy Police Chief Jennifer Kindall, $109,761; Community Development Director Martin Livingston, $105,060; Finance and Budget Director Dennis Locke, $104,728; and Squires.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in Spartanburg in 2020 was $42,841. The median household income in South Carolina was $54,864.

Officers with the Spartanburg Police Department take in, tag, and render inoperable, many guns and rifles during a gun buy-back initiative with the City of Spartanburg, Saturday morning, July 30, 2022. Citizens were paid and given gift certificates for firearms turned in during the event. Police Chief Alonzo Thompson hands receipts to a participant in the program.

The departments with the largest budgets in 2021-22 remained the police department, fire department and public works.

In fiscal year 2021 - 2022, the city put aside $29,904,786 for city employees for 376 full-time and 53 part-time city employees.

The average salary for a city employee is $51,058.81 per year. This amounts to a budget of 20,408,821 spent on salary and 9,495,965 on employee benefits.

The city set aside $11,376,473 for the police personnel budget, with 142 employees and a median income of $52,209.51.

For the fire department, the city has a budget of $5,586,727, with 75 employees and a median income of $48,802.59.

Public works department comes in third, with a budget of $4,134,113 with 67 employees and a median income of $44,858.75.

Contact Bob Montgomery at bob.montgomery@shj.com. Please support our coverage of Spartanburg County with a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Spartanburg City Manager highest paid city employee again