3 mayoral aides draw top salaries

Mayor Nutter's call for "the best and the brightest" came with a cost: Three of his top hires are earning from 15 percent to 23 percent more than their predecessors.

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, for instance, is being paid $195,000 a year. That's 23 percent more than the $158,538 paid to Sylvester Johnson. It's also a jump from the $175,000 salary Ramsey earned in Washington, where he was police chief for nine years.

New City Managing Director Camille Barnett, who has managed governments in Dallas, Houston, Washington and elsewhere, likewise will be paid $195,000 - 15 percent more than the $169,062 earned by her predecessor, Loree Jones.

Nutter's chief of staff, Clay Armbrister, a Temple University executive, is earning $198,500. That is 21 percent more than the $163,894 that was paid Mayor John Street's chief of staff, Joyce Wilkerson.

All three of those senior aides will be making more than Nutter, who earns $186,044.

"As the mayor said in the announcements for several of his appointees, these individuals are really good at what they do," Nutter spokesman Doug Oliver said yesterday.

Referring to the Nutter's appointments in general, he said, "Many are locally, regionally and even nationally known experts in their respective areas. . . . We are going to be demanding the highest productivity from each and every person. I know Philadelphians will be pleased with the service they receive."

According to a salary list of top mayoral aides, Cabinet members, and 13 commissioners and department heads, two other high-ranking officials will receive paychecks exceeding Nutter's own.

Terry Phillis, head of the mayor's office of information technology, is paid $197,600 annually, and Arthur Evans, acting commissioner of the department of Health and Human Services and director of the Community Behavioral Health department, is paid $202,800.

Both are holdovers from the previous administration, and are earning the same as they did then.

It's hardly unusual for municipal officials in big cities to earn six-figure salaries. And with pay restricted by city law to certain ranges, the heads of 13 major city departments in Nutter's administration collectively are costing taxpayers about the same as they did during Street's tenure, nearly $1.7 million.

For some, the decision to join the new administration meant a pay cut.

Armbrister, for example, was paid $393,000 in 2006 as Temple's chief operating officer, according to publicly filed tax documents.

"It was a source of significant discussion in my family, particularly with my wife," Armbrister said in an interview. Three years ago, he said, it would have been "an even more difficult decision," with two of his five children then in college.

Noting the youngest of his other three is 12 years old, Armbrister said, "This is the first time I've gone into public service at some significant financial risk."

So why did he do it? "I like taking on challenges," he said, adding that he "cares so much about the future of the city" in which he has lived and worked for 25 years.

Also, Armbrister described his current salary as a "very good" one. "I am being a paid a lot of money to take on significant responsibility," he said.

Wendell Pritchett, a University of Pennsylvania Law School professor, also decided to forgo some income. He is being paid $150,000 as Nutter's director of research, policy and planning. Pritchett wouldn't disclose his law professor salary, but said the gap amounts to a "substantial" cut.

"We will have to make changes in our life, no question about that," Pritchett said of his family. He said he is a Philadelphia native with a strong "commitment to Michael" and his plan to improve the city. "So it wasn't hard for me to decide those changes were worth it."