Lorain's safety forces were top wage earners for 2022

LORAIN — Lorain spent about $36.6 million on its employee salaries last year, up from $35.4 million the year prior. In 2022, the city's police and fire department swept the top 10 earners, according to documents provided by the Auditor's Office. Of those, the top two were retirees — police Sgt. Kenneth Zapolski ($197,230) and firefighter Dennis Smith ($186,997). Both men's separation pay, which includes the sell-back of all unused vacation time banked over their careers, pushed their earnings to the top of the list. Zapolski's separation pay was more than $94,000; Smith's was more than $89,000. Smith — like the rest of the fire department — also earned thousands of dollars in overtime, and the department received retroactive longevity pay last year, boosting firefighters' totals. Fire Chief Chris Radman said the department ran short-staffed the majority of the year. In part due to former Assistant Chief Matthew Homolya being out on administrative leave during an investigation, and a number of retirements that took time to fill. Homolya came in at No. 12, receiving $150,729 through his base salary, overtime, retroactive longevity pay and $58,385 in separation pay. Homolya resigned from the department in August, having been on administrative leave following an off-duty incident with his neighbor in March. "Assistant chiefs and captains were working a lot of overtime," Radman said. Radman also cracked the top 10 this year, coming in at No. 7, earning $171,714. Typically the fire department has about 66 firefighters in its ranks, he said, but for large portions of 2022 it had about 61. Some men were also out with injuries as well, he said, further exacerbating the issue. Now in the first part of 2023 the fire department has gotten its staffing up to 70, and will be at 72 in a couple of weeks, Radman said. He said around 72 firefighters was where the department stood when the fire levy first passed in 2016 and was happy to get it back up to that level again. While the overtime may look good in some firefighter's bank accounts, it takes a toll — with some working more than 72 hours straight, he said. With the department at a higher staffing level this year, Radman expects the amount of overtime earned to go down across the board for his department. For the police department, Chief Jim McCann said much of his earnings was in selling back unused holiday and vacation time, while Capts. Michael Failing and Roger Watkins had callouts — resulting in overtime. McCann came in at No. 4 in earnings, with $181,519. In 2022 he also received a bump to his base pay — bringing his salary to $125,000 plus a 12 percent rank differential. Compared to 2021, the city's top 10 earners grossed $100,200 more in 2022 than the year prior. The list also saw 2022 entirely populated by the city's safety forces, while 2021 included the utilities administrator and IT director among the highest earners. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.