Search salaries: How much do Miami County employees make?

Editor’s note: The Dayton Daily News I-Team is gathering payroll data for local governments across our region, as well as state government and higher education, as part of our Payroll Project. You can search Payroll Project data here. We are gathering payroll data for 2017 and will add it to the database as it is collected. If you have a suggestion for our Payroll Project, email I-Team reporter Josh Sweigart at Josh.Sweigart@coxinc.com.

Miami County Engineer Paul Huelskamp brings in two paychecks from the county that totaled $140,960 last year, making him the county's highest-paid employee, according to the I-Team Payroll Project searchable database of public employees.

Huelskamp brought in $104,950 in his elected post as county engineer after getting a statutory pay raise from the $95,193 he earned in 2016.

He was also paid $36,010 as the county’s sanitary engineer. When asked, Huelskamp provided a legal opinion from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office saying a county engineer – who has restrictions on what type of private sector work he can do – can be paid separately as a sanitary engineer.

Huelskamp said Miami County doesn’t need a full-time sanitary engineer, but with the two posts, “I think it adds up to more than one full-time job.”

Local governments make payroll with your money, which is why the I-Team has assembled and made available a searchable database of pay for public employees.

An I-Team investigation last year found the ability to cash out unused sick and vacation leave is a rare perk in the private sector, though local governments are on the hook for tens of millions of dollars worth of these payments.

SPECIAL REPORT: Taxpayers on hook for $444M in unused state worker leave

Miami County’s 10 highest-paid employees last year were:

1. Paul Huelskamp, county engineer: $140,960

2. Anthony Kendell, county prosecutor: $127,563

3. Mark McDaniel, executive director of the Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services: $122,689

4. Steve Lord, chief sheriff’s deputy: $120,199

5. Gary Zuhl, municipal court magistrate: $117,963

6. Brian Green, superintendent of Riverside Developmental Disabilities: $110,651

7. Steven Layman, public defender: 102,440.78

8. Terri Becker, chief financial officer of the Tri-County Board Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services: 100,942.16

9. Gretchen Beers, common pleas court magistrate: 100,157.45

10. J. Scott Myers, executive director of the Miami County Park District: 99,618.00

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About the Author

Josh Sweigart

Josh Sweigart is an investigative reporter at the Dayton Daily News. His stories have focused on government waste, fraud, abuse and accountability in southwest Ohio, as well as the statehouse and U.S. Capitol.