Clark County Rewards Employees Handsomely

Public service in Clark County can be very lucrative.

Last year, more than 50 county employees earned at least $300,000 in total compensation.

At the top of the list was outgoing County Manager Yolanda King, who earned total pay and benefits of $865,750.13, according TransparentNevada.com, a Nevada Policy website that captures the salaries of all public employees in the state.

King’s earnings included $256,367 in regular pay and benefits totaling $137,442. In addition, she received other pay of $471,940. King’s earnings represented a jump of more than $355,000 from what she earned in 2021.

During King’s last decade working for Clark County, she received total compensation of nearly $4.4 million.

King retired last November and was replaced by former Deputy County Manager Kevin Schiller. Schiller was hired with a base salary of $297,000, in addition to benefits. Schiller earned total compensation of $364,149.27 in 2022, which included a base salary of $258,124 and “other pay” of $17,852.

Curtis Brown, the county’s chief public defender, took home total compensation of $511,409.66 in 2022. That included regular pay of $121,435 and other pay of $336,209.

One other county employee also earned more than half a million dollars during the year.  Rosemary Vassilladis, the county’s director of aviation, earned total pay and benefits of $501,519.48. That included regular pay of $289,577 and other pay of $79,601.

Thirty of the 51 Clark County employees who earned more than $300,000 during 2022 were involved with firefighting.

At the top of the list was Fire Engineer William Hill (total pay and benefits of $423,660.62), Fire Captain Scott Taggard ($390,097.10) and Fire Chief John Steinbeck ($362,116.17).

Hill’s pay included a base salary of $111,727, overtime pay of $124,026 and other pay of $99,688. His total benefits were worth an additional $88,277. Taggard netted $103,029 in overtime pay and $75,604 in other pay. Steinbeck, who announced this fall that he would run for a seat in the Nevada Senate, received no overtime but did get $60,889 in other pay.

The top recipient of overtime pay among Clark County employees last year was Fire Engineer Joseph Salazar, who brought in $130,007 in OT. In all, Salazar earned $356,289.04 in 2022.

Nearly 250 county employees earned pay and benefits of at least $250,000 during 2022, and more than 650 employees earned at least $200,000. The per capita income in Nevada is around $35,000 a year, and less than 7 percent of Nevada households earn $200,000 or more, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Clark County employees more than 10,000 individuals, according to the county.