What government officials are paid in central Virginia

Thomas J. Swartzwelder makes $90,000 as county attorney for rural King and Queen County.

He also brings in $86,000 as county administrator and $49,000 as zoning administrator.

The three salaries put his annual compensation at $225,000 for serving a county with about 7,000 residents, little growth and only a handful of gas stations and restaurants.

Swartzwelder's pay puts him fifth-highest among local government and school officials in central Virginia, according to a survey by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Henrico County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett tops the list at $261,166, after joining the county work force in 1972 and rising through the ranks.

Swartzwelder, 45, started in King and Queen 14 months ago as a part-time county attorney and member of the Norfolk-based law firm Kaufman & Canoles. The Board of Supervisors tapped him for the full-time, blended role in November after struggling to fill the two other vacant positions.

Swartzwelder does not see himself in the same league with Hazelett and other top officials from much larger counties and school divisions.

"I don't qualify for that kind of money for any one of my positions," he said. "It's really just three jobs if you pull them together to make one full-time-plus job."

Swartzwelder said he works 50 to 55 hours per week doing all three jobs. He estimates that it would cost taxpayers $35,000 more per year if there were three people doing those jobs. He said the positions he holds are critical for any county to function but added that in tiny King and Queen, "it's really questionable whether all these jobs are year-round, full-time jobs."

King and Queen Board of Supervisors Chairman M.W. "Pete" McDuff, said hiring Swartzwelder for the three positions is "the smartest thing this board has ever done. He is an amazing individual. He is sharp as a tack."

McDuff said the county has brought in outside legal counsel in a couple of instances where concerns of a potential conflict of interest arose over Swartzwelder's multiple roles.

James D. Campbell, executive director of the Virginia Association of Counties, said it is not unusual in smaller localities for one person to serve as, say, the county administrator, planner and budget director.

"It's a little unusual to serve as county attorney and county administrator at the same time, but again, you know, they did talk about it before they did it," Campbell said. "It's really up to the individual, if he feels he can recognize when there might be some conflict, acknowledge that and step back."

The newspaper's compensation survey for fiscal year 2008-09 found that about 500 local government and school division employees receive annual salaries and other compensation of $100,000 or more per year.

Below Hazelett is Chesterfield County school Superintendent Marcus J. Newsome, $248,667; Hanover County Superintendent Stewart D. Roberson, $240,828; Chesterfield Administrator James J.L. Stegmaier, $238,960; and Swartzwelder.

The survey looked at salaries and other perks such as car allowances and deferred compensation for thousands of workers, excluding largely state-funded constitutional positions such as sheriffs and commonwealth's attorneys.

The survey found that $100,000-plus packages are not reserved for top administrators, attorneys and police chiefs. Others include municipal physicians, department directors and deputy directors, as well as school principals, information-technology project managers, a fire captain, a database administrator and an instructional specialist.

And that doesn't take overtime into account. In 2008, Petersburg police Lt. Edwin S. Jones logged enough overtime to put his earnings at $100,764 -- more than City Manager B. David Canada's $99,796 and Police Chief John I. Dixon III's $87,924.

. . .

The abundance of six-figure salaries undercuts the old notion that government jobs offer low pay but are appealing because they come with better security and retirement benefits than positions in the private sector, said Michael Thompson, chairman and president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a nonprofit that promotes efficient government.

"Now, not only is it a stable job that you can retire from in 20 years, but you also get paid a heck of a lot," he said. "The whole argument for government jobs has changed over the years."

The Times-Dispatch salary survey found that most of the area's top compensation packages are in the three largest and still-growing counties -- Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico.

Hanover County Attorney Sterling E. Rives III was sixth overall, at $217,124; followed by Henrico Superintendent Fred S. Morton IV, $211,488; and Chesterfield County Attorney Steven L. Micas, $209,019.

Rounding out the top 10 were Hanover County Administrator Cecil R. "Rhu" Harris Jr., $205,788; and Chesterfield Deputy County Administrator Millard D. Stith Jr., $197,526.

. . .

Last fall, the average pay of local government and school employees in the Richmond area was $39,780, according to the Virginia Employment Commission.

Workers in all categories in the Richmond area -- public and private -- averaged $43,212, about 8 percent more. The gap had widened by 1 percentage point since 1998, according to employment commission data.

Only three of the area's top 25 highest-paid officials work in the city of Richmond.

City Attorney Norman B. Sales makes $175,500, while acting Chief Administrative Officer Christopher L. Beschler makes $177,595; Beschler's regular salary as a deputy chief administrative officer is $162,595. New School Superintendent Yvonne Brandon makes $170,000.

Mayor Dwight C. Jones' salary is capped by ordinance at $125,000, although he also is provided $22,000 in deferred compensation and access to a city vehicle. Last summer, City Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell proposed increasing the salary to $150,000 but withdrew the measure before a vote.

Jones' compensation trails that of seven other city employees, including the mayor's top appointee -- the chief administrative officer -- as well as Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood. Jones has not objected to his pay.

Chesterfield, which leads the area in population and public school enrollment, also leads in the number of government and school employees who receive at least $100,000.

The combined compensation of Chesterfield's 131 six-figure workers totals more than $16 million. By comparison, Swartzwelder oversees an annual budget of about $20 million in King and Queen.

Henrico has 107 six-figure workers, followed by Richmond, 86, and Hanover, 56.

Scott Zaremba, Chesterfield's assistant director of human-resource management, said the number of six-figure salaries in the county government and school system reflects the large and still-mushrooming population.

Another driver, he said, is how long many high-ranking employees have worked in the county. "Some of our people have been here 30-plus years," he said.

Thompson said that with their earning power, government administrators should be held to standards expected of private-sector counterparts.

"If they're going to pay those salaries, it's incumbent to make those bureaucracies as efficient as possible," he said.

Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or wjones@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Randy Jessee at (804) 649-6118 or rjessee@timesdispatch.com.

Staff writer Olympia Meola contributed to this report.