The city of Alameda recently released the 2011 salaries of its city employees.

The salaries of many public workers, specifically the heads of many departments, may come as a surprise to residents of Alameda. Fifty public workers in the city of Alameda made $200,000 or more in 2011.

The highest paid city worker was police captain James S. Brock. Brock made $409,879 in 2011, nearly $50,000 more than the $361,583 chief of police Mike Noonan — the second highest paid public worker last year — made in 2011.

In fact, nine of the top 10 highest paid city employees in 2011 worked in either the fire or police department.

The sole worker outside the fire and police department in the top 10 was Alameda Municipal Power general manager Girish Balachandran who was 10th with $240,812 in pay and benefits.

For some city employees, their base salary was just a portion of their total earnings. For example, Brock's total earning was more than Noonan's, but Noonan's base salary was $185,791 compared to Brock's $127,752.

Brock made a chunk of his gross salary in uniform and equipment allowance pay $1,175, retention pay $17,000 and leave payoff or deferred compensation conversion pay $164,739.

Other categories that the city paid employees other than base pay included: holiday in-lieu pay, education incentive and auto allowance.

In all, 77 percent of city workers made more than $75,000 last year, 44 percent earned $100,000 to $199,000 last year and 10 percent made more than $200,000.

Eighty-eight percent of workers in the fire and police departments earned $150,000 to $400,000 last year, 58 percent made $150,000 to $199,000 last year and 30 percent received $200,000 to $400,000.

These numbers are well above the average salaries for Alameda residents who do not work for the city. In 2010, Alameda male residents made an average of $66,000, while female residents averaged $55,000 that year, according to the 2010 US Census.

The release of the salary information comes at a time when the city is trying to pass Measure C — a half-percent sales tax increase — that, among other things, will raise money for a new emergency operation center for the police and fire departments, purchase new police vehicles and create other fire and police facilities.

An anti-Measure C group created www.AlamedaNoOnC.com and posted the 2011 salary data on their site. They indicated that the city of Alameda added $4.8 million in increased city-worker pay, while currently in a $4.4 million deficit.

Contact Ekene Ikeme at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .