Providence City ‘Volunteers’ Earn $500,000

Providence City ‘Volunteers’ Earn $500,000

They are supposedly volunteers, but members of key boards and commissions in Providence earn as much as $20,000 for their service, adding up to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, according to payroll data obtained by GoLocalProv.

As the city grapples with a financial crisis, pay for board and commission members is one area that will get close scrutiny, according to a spokesman for Mayor Angel Taveras. “The city has significantly reduced board and commission compensation in the past decade and you can bet, with the city facing a financial emergency, that this will be on the table,” said Press Secretary David Ortiz.

Councilman Sam Zurier, D-Ward 2, agreed. “Certainly, in light of the financial condition we find ourselves in, I would imagine there is some value to checking that out,” he said.

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Pay as high as $20,000

A GoLocalProv review of 2010 payroll data provided by the City Controller reveals that members of boards and commissions make anywhere between a few thousand dollars a year to as much as $20,000 or higher. The boards include the school board, board of licenses, zoning board, water supply board, and commissioners for the Providence Housing Authority. (See chart.)

The total pay in 2010 was $227,013. Including the pay for the City Council—which is elected, not appointed like the other boards and commissions in the list—that figure jumps to $512,658.

Over the years, the city has reduced the benefits that come along with serving on a board or commission. In 2007, the council passed an ordinance that barred “all part-time positions appointed or elected for a specified term” by the mayor or council from accruing longevity, sick, and vacation time.

Several years before that, the council also stripped away health care benefits for board and commission members. However, members of the council itself continue to be eligible for health benefits. Two of them—David Salvatore and Wilbur Jennings—have declined the benefit, according to the City Controller.

Council leader defends board and commission pay

Council President Michael Solomon yesterday told GoLocalProv that board and commission members work hard for what they are paid. He pointed to the board of licenses as an example.

“That’s a pretty important board,” Solomon said. “They have a lot of responsibility.

The board is responsible for granting licenses to entertainment venues, restaurants, bars and nightclubs—decisions that affect thousands of jobs in the area, according to board chairman Andrew Annaldo. It typically meets three times a week and processes about 9,000 licenses a year. It also has the power to pull licenses for underage drinking and even close an establishment—which it did to Club Balloons, a strip club, after a shooting there last year.

The average pay for a board member was $15,572 in 2010. “They put in a lot of hours,” Solomon said. “That’s not out of line … that’s reasonable.”

The chairman, Annaldo, is the highest paid board and commission member in the city, earning $25,308 in 2010—higher even than anyone on the council. Annaldo earns about $7,000 more than the next highest paid member of the board—a bonus that he receives for being chairman, Annaldo told GoLocalProv. As chairman, Annaldo, who works as a lobbyist at the Statehouse, said he spends extra time meeting one-on-one with attorneys for the board.

Other boards log in long hours too. Zoning board meetings, for example, can stretch into eight or nine hours, easily adding up to 40 to 50 hours a month, according to Solomon.

“They’re underpaid by the amount of time they put in,” Solomon added.