Sunshine Week: Concord city manager paid more than almost every other government employee in the state, other salary findings

The Concord city manager continues to be one of the highest-paid government employees in the state. Overtime wages continue to increase, and fewer women were among the city’s top earners last year.

Those were some of the findings from the city’s salary data, tallied over the course of the 2025 calendar year. Details laid out in the city budget and in employment contracts are tied to the fiscal year, which starts in July, and may differ from these figures.

Every year, the Monitor reviews and publishes a database of city salaries for Sunshine Week, a civic tradition celebrating the freedom of information. Last year’s payroll reinforces historical trends, including a heavy reliance by public safety employees on overtime and the presence of relatively few women among the city’s top earners.

In total, 165 people took home over $100,000 last year, nine more the year before. The small club of employees earning more than $200,000 grew from two to three: Last year, Fire Battalion Chief Derek Kelleher joined the ranks of City Manager Tom Aspell and police Lieutenant Craig Levesque.

The Concord City Council awarded the manager a 3% raise over the summer, which would bring Aspell’s pay to just under $250,000 over the course of the current fiscal year. He also receives seven weeks of paid time off annually.

Few government employees in New Hampshire are paid more.

Records show Dover’s city manager, Michael Joyal, was paid just under $260,000 in 2025, generally flat from the prior year, when he received a five-figure raise. Joyal has a single deputy city manager; Aspell has two.

The city of Manchester’s top earner was its police chief, compensated at $203,000 last year. At the state level, only the leaders of the medical examiner’s office and about ten corrections officers — as a result of copious overtime — were paid more last year than the manager of New Hampshire’s third-largest city.

It’s not unheard of for professional municipal leaders, like city managers, to make more than elected or appointed ones. Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais, who serves as both the city’s political leader and chief executive, receives a $100,000 a year salary.

At the state, Gov. Kelly Ayotte ($153,000), Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald ($208,000) and Attorney General John Formella ($159,000) all made significantly less than the state’s highest-paid city managers.

Aspell and Joyal, though, do still stand out among their peers. By comparison, Portsmouth’s city manager, Karen Conard, was paid $189,463 in 2024, according to the Portsmouth Herald.

Weighing his raise in June, Concord city councilors pointed to Aspell’s expertise and tenure. He has worked for Concord since 1998, making him the 30th-longest-serving employee in the city, and he has been the city manager since 2005. His contract ends in 2028, and there has been speculation among city officials about his possible retirement.

Many of the highest earners in Concord are sworn members of its police and fire departments. As a result of significant overtime hours, officers and firefighters accounted for eight of the top ten city employees in overall pay, and more than a handful were paid more than their chiefs, who each received a salary of about $156,000 last year.

One firefighter, Eric Anderson, made more in overtime than his regular pay of about $86,000. He worked more than 4,000 hours last year — the equivalent of a 77-hour work week, every week.

Overtime spending, up 5% from 2024, is growing at a slower rate than in other post-pandemic years. New employee contracts went into effect last summer, causing regular pay to shoot up, increasing in total by almost 10%, or $3.4 million.

Among public safety employees, the fire department remains particularly reliant on overtime. At the police department, overall wage spending actually fell slightly from 2024: Previous cash retention bonuses for police officers weren’t reupped, and more new hires at the bottom of the pay scale meant less overtime.

A wave of new contracts for city employees went into effect last year, granting 5% annual raises to most police officers and firefighters — almost double the rate of increase from five years prior. Other unionized employees get 4% increases, also under new contracts.

Former City Solicitor Danielle Pacik, who appears in payroll records as Danielle Ruane, was the highest-paid female employee in the city in 2025 and the only woman among the ten highest-paid. Her total pay of $191,000 includes a payout of accrued time; she left the city in October for a position at Primex.

Since 2020, the number of women among the city’s 50 highest-paid employees has fallen from ten to five, a result of both the departures of some female employees as well as the rising take-home of officers and firefighters, a majority of whom are men.

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