Bend-area public agencies spent more on employee pay last year than the year prior, and among the highest paid were firefighters, law enforcement officers and lawyers.

According to The Bulletin’s analysis of data from the city of Bend, Deschutes County and the Bend Park & Recreation District, only four people — two firefighters, the park district’s executive director and a psychiatrist — made more than $250,000 last year.

Each public agency spent more on employees than the previous year. The city of Bend spent 18% more on employee pay in 2023 than 2022. Deschutes County spent 12% more, and the park district spent 11% percent more.

Bend Chamber of Commerce CEO Katy Brooks attributes the increase to low unemployment rates across the country and a need to remain competitive to attract and retain employees.

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The average salary for employees of the three agencies in the Bend area is roughly $77,700, and the median salary is roughly $77,400.

The highest paid public employee for fiscal year 2023, which took place from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, was Bill Boos, Bend Fire & Rescue’s former deputy chief. He made $266,278.

Boos had been working for Bend Fire since 1997 and retired from the department in August, and he cashed out on much of his saved up vacation time, he said.

Boos also took home roughly $35,000 in overtime, which he attributes to a particularly busy 2022 through his work on the incident management team.

Don Horton, the executive director of the park district, had the highest base salary in the area at $228,732. Bend City Manager Eric King came close, with a base salary of $222,528.

Disparity in pay

Most of the top earners were men, with only two women making more than $200,000 compared to 15 men.

The disparity was surprising to Brooks.

The solution, she said, “hire women.”

“It’s parity,” Brooks said. “It’s very simple, and it’s not judgmental.”

However, the lack of women present among high earners wasn’t surprising to Luann Abrams, founder of Bend-based CEOX, which helps propel women into leadership roles.

Wage gaps for women have stagnated over the years, she said, but wage growth has slowed. Organizations, both public and private, can benefit from more diverse workforces, Abrams said.

“There’s a lot of data out there that has found that diverse companies perform better,” Abrams said.

In the public sector, it’s much easier to increase diversity and representation than in the private sector thanks to public directives like pay equity laws and discrimination protections, said Andrés Portela, the diversity, equity and inclusion director for the city of Bend.

“When you’re looking at government, representation is a great starting line,” Portela said. “What you want to get to is inclusive practices.”

That allows the community to be more easily vested in government practices, he said.

But diversification takes time.

The hiring patterns that began within the past five years or so, which include diversity and representation considerations, will eventually trickle up, said Rob DuValle, the city’s human resources director.

Many of the top-earning employees at local public agencies are in public safety.

“Most of the folks that have been working in their careers came from a time when these were very male-dominated fields,” DuValle said.

Overtime pay

Those in the public safety field also accrued the bulk of overtime pay, particularly firefighters and Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies. Thirteen of the top 25 overtime earners work for the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, and 11 work for the fire department.

Around $2.5 million, or 77%, of Deschutes County’s more than $3.2 million in overtime pay last year went to the sheriff’s office. The city of Bend spent about the same — around $2.5 million — in overtime pay to both police and fire personnel. Of the city’s more than $3.8 million in overtime pay, more than $834,000, or roughly 22%, went to police, and more than $1.7 million, or roughly 44%, went to fire personnel.

The park district spent around $69,500 on overtime last year. That’s a small fraction of its total spending on employee earnings, which was more than $19.4 million.

Combined, the three public agencies spent nearly $196 million on employee earnings.

To view the full table of employee earnings, visit https://bendbulletin.us/salaries.