The Steamship Authority has posted six years of salaries on its website, a listing that details where its $36.6 million in payroll goes each year. The salaries alone top the operating budgets of each Island town. Edgartown’s current operating budget is $33.5 million.
More than 60 SSA employees earn more than $100,000 per year, with general manager Robert Davis topping the list at $175,000 per year. Before he retired in 2017, longtime general manager Wayne Lamson’s salary was $201,822 in 2016.
The newly posted records show the SSA paid $2.4 million in overtime in 2018.
The salary listings go back to 2013, when the SSA’s budget line for salaries was $30.2 million.
The SSA, along with other public authorities in Massachusetts, was criticized in an April 2018 report by the Boston Globe for keeping salaries at quasi-government authorities secret.
Sean Driscoll, a spokesman for the SSA, wrote in an email that the salaries were posted in response to a request from the public for 2018 employee earnings data. “This information is frequently sought and is clearly public record, so, in our ongoing efforts to be as transparent as possible about our operations, having it readily available to the public was a logical step,” he wrote.
To see the 2018 salaries, go to bit.ly/SSA2018pay.
Senior managers were told about the decision on Tuesday, the day the salaries went live, Driscoll wrote. The rest of the SSA employees are being informed of the decision on Wednesday through a company-wide memo from Davis.
“Please note that there is one glitch in the reports — the job descriptions are all current, and not necessarily reflective of the employee’s position for that specific year,” Driscoll wrote. “We are working on correcting that, and should have updated reports issued soon.”
How about re-sorting that spreadsheet by “total earnings” so we can get a better handle on the data.
Salaries seem appropriate. I must question particularly all the overtime when there are so many employees! And why vacation and holiday extra pay? This seems like gilding the lily.
Over 100 employees made over $100k. Hmmm. Nice gig.
It’s 60.
Looking at this list it seems that it’s time to start the planning of the Bridget Tobin Bridge to the island. The toll booth operators and painters should not be in this price range and no overtime problem.Just saying
The Globe should also particularly target the Land Bank for their secretive, withholding, non-disclosure of salaried employees. Those of us who were forced to pay James Lengyel’s salary should know how much of our 2% tax on our home purchase went into his pocket.
I was given the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank salaries when I requested it earlier this year when trying to negotiate an alternative to that crappy fence at Tradewinds. I would be glad to meet with anyone to share my story and information. For the record, I support people earning a living wage and don’t have a grip with any of the salaries.
Individual salaries or a lump sum of all employees? I was given only a lump sum. Is there a reason why it’s so difficult to get a direct answer from the LB on this question? I can get in touch with you privately if you’d rather not answer publicly. Thanks.
Phil, would you post James Lengel, the Executor Director’s salary here? The Land Bank isn’t going to do what the SSA has done, and it should be public information that is accessible. Maybe the Times can do a story on this? Thanks!
How about the fees of retired SSA employees who return to work as consultants for the Steamship Authority after retirement? Are those consulting fees of retired SSA employees included in the salaries here?
I don’t think I would want my salary out there for the public…I’m just an average worker and I don’t make big bucks , so why the “average” worker at the SSA want their name in the paper for the whole world to see? I know some of these people and I have to say they probably didn’t want the salary exposed.