Town Manager Patrick Banger, left, and Town Attorney Christopher Payne are among the highest paid municipal staff members in the Valley overall and at their respective positions.
Gilbert’s top municipal employees are among the highest paid in the Valley, data collected by the Daily Independent shows.
That’s includes Town Manager Patrick Banger, Gilbert’s highest paid employee at $293,520.61, which is the sixth highest among municipal employees in the Valley.
The Daily Independent collected information on the top 25 highest paid municipal workers from every Valley city.
Town of Gilbert Top 25 Salaries in 2023
Town of Gilbert/Independent Newsmedia
Gilbert’s top 25 officials received an average of $198,525.70 in salary, ranking behind Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Chandler and Glendale but slightly ahead of Surprise and Tempe.
Additionally, Gilbert has seven of the top 100 highest paid municipal employees in the Valley, including Banger, Town Attorney Christopher Payne (No. 18), Police Chief Michael Soelberg (No. 54), Assistant Town Manager Leah Rhineheimer (No. 60), Gilbert Municipal Court Presiding Judge David Cutchen (No. 65), Chief Technology Officer Sasan Poureetezadi (No. 73), and Assistant Town Manager Mary Goodman (No. 85).
Patrick Banger, Gilbert Town Manager
Christopher Payne, Gilbert Town Attorney
Michael Soelberg, Gilbert Police Chief
Leah Rhineheimer, Gilbert Assistant Town Manager
David Cutchen, Gilbert Municipal Court Presiding Judge
Banger only ranks behind other city managers from Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa and Glendale, plus Scottsdale’s previous city manager, Jim Thompson, now a contract employee for the city.
Payne is the third highest city attorney behind Scottsdale’s Sherry Scott and Mesa’s James Smith.
Soelberg is the fifth highest paid police chief behind those from Mesa, Scottsdale, Tempe and Glendale.
Gilbert is an exceptionally high-performing organization, Nathan Williams, Gilbert’s chief people officer, said by email.
To achieve commensurate pay, it conducts a market student to determine the market rate of each, which is defined as the average midpoint salary range of that position across the market, Williams said. The town matches its midpoint to that average.
Gilbert is among the highest-paying municipalities in the Valley. Here are the top by average salary of the top 25 paid employees.
Daily Independent research
“As one of the largest cities in the Valley, Gilbert’s ranking of sixth in the market is in line with the organization’s compensation philosophy,” he said. “Gilbert runs an efficiently staffed organization that delivers exceptional service and value in this competitive labor market.”
Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X. We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
town of Gilbert,
Patrick Banger,
Christopher Payne,
Michael Soelberg,
Leah Rhineheimer,
David Cutchen,
Sasan Poureetezadi,
Mary Goodman,
Nathan Williams
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