ROCK HILL — Many of the city of Rock Hill’s top salaried employees make thousands of dollars less per year than their counterparts in Greenville, which has about 7,000 fewer people than Rock Hill.
Six of Rock Hill’s top city officials make an average of about $20,000 less per year than their counterparts in Greenville, including the city manager, public works director, police and fire chiefs, municipal judge and director of parks and recreation, according to records obtained by The Herald through the Freedom of Information Act.
A searchable database of all Rock Hill city employees making $50,000 or more is now available on the Herald’s website at www.heraldonline.com/databases.
Rock Hill’s two deputy city managers make an average of $17,735 annually more than Greenville’s deputy manager who also serves as the city’s economic development director. Greenville’s deputy manager has 33 years of experience in the city’s government. Rock Hill’s deputy managers have a total of 65 years of experience with the city.
Greenville and Rock Hill are similar in population but vary in services offered to residents.
Rock Hill provides utility services to an estimated 95,000 people – which includes residents and businesses in the city and surrounding areas.
The city of Greenville does not provide utility services such as water and electricity.
Rock Hill Deputy City Manager Jimmy Bagley is in charge of overseeing the utilities department in addition to public works, information technology services and parks, recreation and tourism. He’s worked at the city for more than 23 years. He makes $147,588.48 per year.
Deputy City Manager Gerry Schapiro, one of the city’s longest-serving employees, has been with the city of Rock Hill for more than 42 years. Schapiro has previously served as acting city manager. He currently oversees the finance, housing and neighborhood services and human resources departments, along with the Municipal Court and Solicitor's Office. He makes $151,750.56.
David Vehaun has been Rock Hill’s city manager for two years and four months and has spent about 26 years working for the city. Vehaun makes $158,017 – about $8,300 less than his counterpart, John Castile, in Greenville.
Castile has worked for Greenville for 17 years, overseeing about 1,000 employees and a budget of about $132 million.
Rock Hill’s budget for the past year is about $183 million.
Rock Hill’s directors of human resources and management and budget offices make $10,982 and $3,210, respectively, more than their Greenville counterparts.
The total paid to the top 10 salaried officials in the town of Mount Pleasant – a South Carolina city close in population size to Rock Hill – is about $171,000 less than the total paid to Rock Hill’s 10 highest-paid city employees.
Mount Pleasant’s top 10 salaried employees make an average of $101,000 yearly. In Rock Hill, the average salary of the 10 highest-paid employees is $118,000.
Census data from 2010 shows that Mount Pleasant has 500 fewer people than Rock Hill. Mount Pleasant does not provide electric service to residents, which is Rock Hill’s largest single source of revenue.
Of Mount Pleasant’s 10 highest-paid officials, four employees make an average of about $15,100 less and three employees make an average of about $12,600 more than Rock Hill officials with similar duties.
Three of Mount Pleasant’s top 10 employees do not have a similar counterpart in Rock Hill.
Anna Douglas • 803-329-4068
