Payroll Project: Washington Twp.’s highest paid employees

Washington Twp. paid 41 employees more than $100,000 each in 2022, according to the Payroll Project, an annual reporting project from the Dayton Daily News.

The fire department had 36 six-figure salaries, which was more than any other department.

The highest paid township employee last year was Jesse Lightle. Lightle was deputy administrator for Washington Twp. from 2006 to 2008 and then administrator from 2008 until Jan. 15 of this year, then started the next day with Sinclair Community College in Dayton as its senior vice president and chief of staff. She pivoted in March to a new role: administrator of Butler County’s Liberty Twp., a position for which she said she applied after starting her new job at Sinclair.

The employer for government agencies is the voting and taxpaying public. As with any other employer, the public has not just a right but a responsibility to know how much its employees are paid in the interest of good stewardship.

Go here for a searchable database of state and local government pay across our region.

ExploreSearch public employee salaries: 5 things to know about our Payroll Project

The highest paid Washington Twp. employees last year were:

1. Jesse Lightle, township administrator: $202,001

2. Scott Kujawa, fire chief: $150,857

3. Mark Metzger, recreation facility director: $139,112

4. 2Joshua Augustine, battalion chief: $137,241

5. Michael Guadagno, battalion chief: $133,265

6. David Schmolinsky, fire lieutenant: $130,972

7. Joel Holbrook, battalion chief: $128,287

8. Nicholas Bergman, deputy fire chief: $124,482

9. Brendan Harnish, fire lieutenant: $124,114