Who Are the Highest-Paid Dallas City Employees?

The city of Dallas is a massive organization with a roughly $5 billion annual budget and around 15,000 employees. Recently, city employee pay has been a hot topic in Dallas, thanks to the 2024 departure of City Manager T.C. Broadnax and the 2025 hiring of his successor, Kimberly Bizor Tolbert.  Broadnax was paid more than $460,000 after his resignation, thanks to his severance agreement with the city that included pay for salary and unused vacation time.

That’s a pretty sweet deal. However, the fact that Broadnax's annual salary was more than $420,000 sent Mayor Eric Johnson looking for ways to avoid paying that amount and ensure that no future city managers have such a clause included in their agreements.

All that Broadnax pay drama got us thinking: Who are the highest-paid city employees, and how much do they earn?

Unsurprisingly, the new city manager sits atop the list provided to the Observer by the city with an annual salary of $450,000. That’s quite the raise from her salary of more than $319,000 as the deputy city manager. The second highest salary in Dallas belongs to Cheryl Alston, the executive director of the Employees’ Retirement Fund of the City of Dallas, who now makes $407,285 per year, which is nearly $20,000 more than her 2024 salary of $387,891.42. Alston oversees the pension plan for the civilian employees. Officials in Alston’s department make up an additional three spots on this list.

Interim Dallas Police Chief Michael Igo is missing from the City Hall list. According to a Dallas spokesperson, Igo makes $284,129.93, but only $208,965.15 of that is base salary. The remaining $74,164.77 is "interim assignment pay" and is not considered part of a person's salary by the city.

Each of the 20 highest-paid Dallas employees easily clears $200,000 annually, and dozens of other positions pay an average annual salary between $100,000 and $200,000. The Dallas mayor is paid $80,000 per year. On the lower end, at least for full-time positions, an office assistant’s average salary is a little over $34,000 a year, some water meter reader jobs pay $40,000 and certain custodian jobs offer an average of $43,000 yearly.

Here are the 20 highest-paid city of Dallas employees, as of March 2025.

1. Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, City Manager: $450,000
   
   
2. Cheryl Alston, Employees' Retirement Fund Administrator: $407,288.99
   
   
3. David Etheridge, Employees' Retirement Fund Assistant Administrator: $331,040.23
   
4. Devarati Rastogi, Assistant City Manager: $330,000
   
   
5. Tammy Palomino, City Attorney: $325,000
   
   
6. Natalie Sorrell, Employee Retirement Fund Officer II: $311,401.13
   
   
7. John Jenkins, Director - Park and Recreation: $288,631.69
   
   
8. Dominique Artis, Chief of Public Safety: $283,607.10
   
   
9. Jack Ireland, Chief Financial Officer: $270,112.50
   
   
10. Mary Cedillo-Pereira, Assistant City Manager: $248,065.20
    
    
11. Alina Ciocan, Assistant City Manager: $240,000
    
    
12. Sarah Standifer, Director - Water Utility: $235,000
    
    
13. Patrick Carreno, Director - Aviation: $231,750
    
    
14. Edward Scott, Employees' Retirement Fund Assistant Administrator: $230,026.93
    
    
15. Ghassan Khankarli, Director of Transportation and Public Works: $230,000
    
    
16. Jennifer Huggard, Assistant City Attorney: $214,987.50
    
    
17. Mark Swann, City Auditor: $214,240
    
    
18. Bilierae Johnson, City Secretary: $214,240
    
    
19. Ayeh Powers, Assistant City Attorney: $214,240
    
    
20. Betram Vendenberg, Chief of General Counsel: $213,150