Mayor Rob Ford has called-out some Toronto police employees after a ‘Sunshine List’ revealed that nearly 3,000 police officers and employees received salaries of more than $100,000 last year.
Ford said that while he respects the work done by front-line police officers, he says the high salaries afforded to Toronto police employees like Mark Pugash, Toronto Police Director of Corporate Communications, are “shocking.”
“When you look at Mr. Pugash making $178,000 as a communications director, that’s pretty shocking,” Ford told reporters Friday. “But I support our front-line officers. They work hard. They deserve the money.”
When reached by CP24, Pugash dismissed Ford’s comments.
"I do not respond to personal attacks," he told CP24 Friday night.
Ford’s comments come on the same day an annual report revealed that some 2,938 Toronto Police Service employees made more than $100,000 last year.
That includes a number of cadets-in-training and so-called Green Hornet parking enforcement officers.
Chief Bill Blair tops the list of highest paid cops on the force. He made more than $334,000 in 2013, with an additional $3,300 in taxable benefits.
In total, nearly 40 per cent of the Service’s 8,000 workers made the so-called “Sunshine List” in 2013.
The base salary for a Toronto constable ranges from $89,000 to $97,000 a year.
Plain-clothes officers earn between $95,000 and $103,000.
With files from Paul Bliss and CP24
