EVANSVILLE — You can always find the highest-paid public employees in Vanderburgh County working in the upper tiers of education. But criminal-justice employees aren’t far behind.
Judges, a public defender, Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Nick Hermann and Sheriff Dave Wedding combined to make up a sizeable portion of the Evansville area’s top earners in 2021.
No one in the top 25 made less than $140,000.
In a list of the top 10 published by the Courier & Press last month, we overlooked Steven Becker, the associate dean of the Indiana University School of Medicine in Downtown Evansville. His $335,327 compensation placed him second overall and bumped Zane Mitchell – dean of the University of Southern Indiana’s Pott College of Science, Engineering and Education – out of the top 10.
More public employee salaries:Here are the highest-paid Vanderburgh County public employees from 2021
The 12th- to 25th-highest earners are listed below.
The list only includes public employees, which means administrators and professors at the University of Evansville, a private institution, aren’t included. Private business leaders don’t qualify either.
If we missed anyone who should have been included, let us know.
12. Nick Hermann
Job: Vanderburgh County prosecutor
Compensation: $164,950
The Vanderburgh County prosecutor was the county's highest-paid elected official in 2021, making about $6,000 more than he did the year before, according to state records.
Indiana Gateway, the statewide database of public salaries, lists Hermann's compensation as slightly lower, at $163,493. But a letter from Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush that was sent to the Vanderburgh County Council in April 2021 set the state's compensation for prosecutors at $159,950. Vanderburgh County then kicked in $5,000 toward Hermann's rate, bringing his income to the total above.
13. Les Shively
Job: Superior Court judge
Compensation: $162,543
14. Wayne Trockman
Job: Superior Court judge
Compensation: $162,493
T-15. Mary Margaret Lloyd
Job: Superior Court judge
Compensation: $162,393
T-15. David Kiely
Job: Circuit Court judge
Compensation: $162,393
T-15. Brett Niemeier
Job: Superior Court judge
Compensation: $162,393
T-15. Robert Pigman
Job: Superior Court judge
Compensation: $162,393
19. Gary Schutte
Job: Superior Court judge
Compensation: $162,228
20. Dave Wedding
Job: Vanderburgh County sheriff
Compensation: $161,601
Wedding, who's serving his final year as sheriff, has seen his compensation increase by more than $30,000 in the last five years. State records listed his 2016 income as $126,437.
21. Stephen Owens
Job: Chief public defender
Compensation: $161,124
22. Kenneth Spear
Job: Vanderburgh County Health Department administrator
Compensation: $155,649
23. Brian McGuire
Job: Interim dean of USI’s Romain College of Business
Compensation: $154,114
24. Kevin Celuch
Job: USI marketing professor
Compensation: $143,291
25. Khalilah Doss
Job: USI vice president of student affairs
Compensation: $141,400