Who are the Top 10 highest-compensated people employed by Franklin County? Find out here
Franklin County employs more than 8,200 workers across numerous agencies, including the Sheriff's Office, Children's Services, various courts, engineers, dog catchers and other positions.
But how much are they paid, and who are the highest-compensated employees?
The Dispatch used state public records law to obtain payroll and salary information that shows each worker's total compensation, including base salary, bonuses, overtime, vacation, sick leave and "other" compensation for calendar year 2022.
The top 10 highest-compensated county employees received between $426,750 and $232,376, with four receiving "other" compensation in the six figures. "Other" compensation can involve nearly 50 categories, including longevity and retirement payouts, sick and vacation pay, and even car and phone allowances.
The highest-compensated worker employed by Franklin County last year was Dr. Kent Harshbarger, who was paid $426,750 working as a certified forensic pathologist for the county coroner's office for about four months as a consultant, and the rest of the year as a part-time chief deputy coroner with no health benefits. Another pathologist in the coroner's office, Dr. Erica Armstrong, also made the top 10 pay list at the fifth spot, receiving $258,566, mostly doing contractual work. Their pay is reflective of a national shortage of pathologists to perform autopsies.
The second highest-paid county employee in total compensation for 2022 was Jed Morison, the superintendent and CEO for the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities, who will retire at the end of the year. He was paid last year $283,086, which includes $13,441 in "other" compensation.
County Administrator Ken Wilson, who manages county operations and reports directly to the county commissioners, was fourth in total compensation in 2022 at $262,813.
The county commissioners at the start of January 2023 agreed to allow Wilson to retire and be immediately rehired, allowing him to also collect his state pension while working, a practice often referred to as "double-dipping." The move is allowed under Ohio law after a governmental body or school district posts a legal notice of its intention to rehire a retired official or employee.
Executive directors of four departments were among the top 10 highest-compensated county employees in 2022: William Murdock, Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, $243,925; Erica Clark Jones, Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board, $243185; Jean Ryan, Columbus-Franklin County Finance Authority, $238,359; and Charles Spinning, Children's Services, $232,376.
The other two spots on the total compensation leaders list went to members of the Franklin County Sheriff's Office: Major David Oyer at $277,580, including $114,566 in "other" pay; and Lt. Paul Karl at $245,050, including $115,819 in "other" pay. They are two of the seven employees countywide who made six figures in "other" pay last year, four of whom were on the top 10 total compensation list.
The Top 10 in highest overtime pay were all deputies for Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin's office, making between $96,739 and $55,258 in overtime that added around 50% to almost 100% to their regular salary.
Just over a third of all county employees received any overtime pay. Despite that, the county generally did a much better job than the city of Columbus at keeping overtime and "other" pay down, based on Dispatch analyses of both governments' payrolls for 2022.
While the county paid out $20.3 million in compensation other than regular pay and overtime, that was just a fraction of the $224.54 million in "other" compensation that the city of Columbus paid out in 2022, The Dispatch found in an earlier analysis of city payroll records published in July.
That figure was 11 times what the county paid, even though the city has only about a third more total employees at roughly 11,000 total. A majority of those receiving high "other" compensation were deputy chiefs and veteran officers in the Columbus Division of Police who accepted bonuses last year to retire.
The county paid out more than $14 million in total overtime pay last year, again modest compared to Columbus, which paid more than $57 million in OT.
The median regular salary for all county workers was $48,352, just slightly below the city's $50,464, and less than 14% of county workers made twice that median figure compared to nearly one-third of city workers. That was primarily because some city workers had large overtime and "other" payouts.
The three elected county commissioners, President John O'Grady, and board members Kevin Boyce and Erica Crawley, each made a regular salary of $116,293, and received between $100 and $350 in "other" pay. There were eight staff members, including Wilson, working directly for the commissioner's office who made more than the commissioners.
By comparison, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is paid about $160,000 a year.
(Editor's note: This story has been changed to correct the date that Jed Morison is retiring and the spelling of his last name.)
wbush@gannett.com
@ReporterBush
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Top 10 lists show highest-compensated employed by Franklin County
