It's raise time for McKee's Cabinet. Here's who is in line to get a pay bump and how much.
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PROVIDENCE – Do Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee's Cabinet directors deserve to be paid at least as much as their counterparts in Massachusetts and Connecticut?
McKee thinks so.
Who in McKee's Cabinet is in line to get a raise?
The McKee administration held a public hearing on Tuesday for the governor's bid to raise the base salary of the next state health director from the current $175,383 to $250,000 – a 43% hike. The average paid by the New England states that border Rhode Island is $190,311.
On the other hand, McKee is only proposing to raise the salary of his embattled Transportation Director Peter Alviti by 3%, from $182,684 to $188,164. The average paid his counterparts across the border is $225,449, according to an analysis by the state Department of Administration.
With state police blocking vehicle access at both ends of Smith Street in front of both the State House – and the Powers administration building where the hearing was being held – for a movie shoot, the only two members of the public who showed were two union leaders of employees at the Department of Transportation, just down the street.
(For the record: the movie production is expected to pay for all the police details at the State House while shooting "Ella McKay" at an average of $40 an hour for Capitol Police, $76 an hour for state troopers and $87 an hour for Providence police, according to the state's film office director Steve Feinberg.)
Speaking as the president of Local 400 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Denise Robinson said for the record that Alviti does not deserve a raise after breaking a promise to meet about upgrades for the people working under him.
"We are adamantly opposed to any pay increase for any upper level management [at DOT], but specifically the director of transportation due to the fact that he has promised to set up meetings with us to review and discuss upgrades and ways to recruit and retain people, has not kept that promise to us and yet two years in a row he's getting increases.
"I don't believe he is deserving of a pay increase at this time until he meets the needs of his department and gets the help that is needed for the road construction programs that are currently taking place," she said.
In a follow up interview, Robinson also talked about the "culture" at DOT, which she described as a "less than nice place to work sometimes," because of "retaliation" against workers who, "if they say the wrong thing ... could [have] to work at the opposite end of the state" from where they live, or lose their overtime opportunities.
Of the closed interstate highway bridge with undetected deterioration so severe it now requires total replacement, she said: "It's under his watch. That's all I can say."
Not everyone in McKee's Cabinet is up for a raise, but for the others who are, the increases mostly range from 3% up to 31% for the state's Health & Human Services Secretary Richard Charest.
Why the discrepancy in proposed raise amounts?
Why give one so much more of a raise than the other?
One likely answer: the current interim director of the Department of Health, Utpala Bandy, is retiring at the end of this month, and the McKee administration is searching – and potentially negotiating – behind the scenes for a medical doctor with credentials in public health and/or experience in health administration to replace her after an extended stretch of "acting" directors.
As for Alviti, McKee told reporters last week he still has "confidence" in his transportation director, despite the wasted expenditure of more than $50 million on Alviti's watch for painting and building new ramps for the Washington Bridge that is in such bad shape it needs to be torn down.
But the governor may not want to be seen as "rewarding" him.
Governor makes pitch for raises every year
By law and tradition, March is the month each governor proposes whatever salary increases they see as warranted for directors of state agencies, from the relatively tiny Department of Business Regulation all the way up to the employee-heavy Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals.
Barring a retrenchment by the governor – which has happened before in the face of public outcry – or vetoes by the House and Senate, the raises will take effect 30 days after the administration conveys them to the General Assembly.
Not everyone is on the same playing field. Some directors have "longevity" bonuses built into their salaries, from the era when Rhode Island still gave its state employees automatic pay increases at various milestones.
Here's the full list of proposed raises
Barring any changes, these are the raises proposed for McKee's Cabinet (including any longevity and incentives they may already have):
Department of Administration Director Jonathan Womer: $180,184 to $185,589
Newly BHDDH Director Richard Leclerc: $170,237 to $175,344
Acting Department of Corrections Superintendent Wayne Salisbury: $150,930 to potentially $174,593
Department of Children, Youth & Families Director Ashley Deckert: $180,000 to $185,400
Department of Environmental Management Director Terrence Gray: $192,985 to $197,867
Department of Labor & Training Director Matthew Wheldon: $185,810 to $190,864
Department of Revenue Director Thomas Verdi: $159,188 to $163,963
RIDOT Director Peter Alviti: $182,684 to $188,164
State Police/Department of Public Safety Director Darnell Weaver: $210,209 to $224,250
Executive Office of Health & Human Services Secretary Richard Charest: $182,684 to $238,597
Commerce Secretary Elizabeth Tanner: $224,453 to $238,597
McKee has not proposed raises for the directors of the Departments of Human Services (Kimberly Merolla-Brito: $180,042); Business Regulation (Elizabeth Dwyer: $183,240) or Housing (Stefan Pryor, who already makes the $238,597 salary McKee is proposing for the two other "secretary" level directors). The explanation: their salaries were deemed appropriate.
With reports from Patrick Anderson
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: These RI state officials will be getting a raise this year. Here's the list.
