2 agency chiefs get bigger salaries

LINCOLN — Two newly named state agency directors are taking home significantly fatter paychecks than the people they replaced.

Most other state employees, including most agency directors, are getting 2.9 percent more this fiscal year. A few are still waiting to find out what their raises will be.

Kerry Winterer, who took over last week as chief executive officer for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, started at a salary of $155,000.

That's 21.8 percent more than was paid to former CEO Chris Peterson. She retired at the end of 2008 with a salary of $127,310.

Monty Fredrickson, who moved up to the job of director and state engineer in the Department of Roads early this month, is getting a salary of $135,000.

That's 12.6 percent more than his predecessor, John Craig, had been making. Craig was being paid $119,883 when he left in June for a private sector job.

The increases are large enough to be attention-grabbers, said State Sen. Tony Fulton of Lincoln, a member of the Appropriations Committee.

But he said he defers to the governor's judgment on the appropriateness of the salaries, as long as they fit within the budget approved by the Legislature.

Ashley Cradduck, a spokeswoman for Gov. Dave Heineman, said pay for the HHS job needed to be increased to be competitive in the marketplace.

The previous CEO — Peterson — was at HHS for 10 years. She was hired as policy secretary of what was then a three-agency system, and she shared power with the agency heads.

Cradduck said Fredrickson has been with the Roads Department since 1970 and made $131,000 as deputy director. Craig joined the department in 1999.

A third newly named agency head will make less than his predecessor. Ronnie Mitchell will be paid $70,000 when he becomes Department of Aeronautics director Aug. 10. He replaces Stuart McTaggart, who is retiring Aug. 7 at a salary of $75,324.

All but one of the remaining agency heads received a 2.9 percent pay raise when the new fiscal year began July 1.

“It is typical to have an across-the-board raise for directors, with the occasional exceptions,” said Jen Rae Hein, a governor's spokeswoman.

This year's exception was State Labor Commissioner Catherine Lang, who received a 5.9 percent increase.

Lang moved from being deputy state tax commissioner to the top job in the Department of Labor last September, without a change in pay. Hein said the governor had agreed to reconsider her salary July 1.

The 2.9 percent raises equal those negotiated by the Nebraska Association of Public Employees for the bulk of the state employees it represents.

State officials gave the same level of raises to supervisors and managers.

Employees represented by the State Law Enforcement Bargaining Council received 4.9 percent raises this year.

Two groups of state employees are still waiting for the outcome of their contract disputes to learn what their raises will be.

The 72 teachers who work in prisons and other state institutions won a Commission on Industrial Relations ruling, but the state is appealing. The commission has yet to rule on a case involving a group of engineers and scientists.

Contact the writer:

402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com