As Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier renegotiated her $253,000-a-year salary this week as the nation’s fourth highest paid police administrator, one argument unavailable to her was that she is hurting for money.
Figures released by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer show that Chief Lanier and her boyfriend, Metropolitan Police DepartmentSgt. James M. Schaefer, with whom she shares a “principal residence” in Maryland, received more than $400,000 in salary and “employer paid benefits” in 2011.
Despite Chief Lanier’s promise to cut police overtime pay, more than $34,000 of the couple’s income came from Sgt. Schaefer’s overtime pay for just the first six months of the year, according to the figures.
On Wednesday, Chief Lanier and the District announced an agreement on her new contract, which shows no salary increase, possibly avoiding a showdown with the D.C. Council, which recently enacted a law that purported to cap executive salaries such as hers.
But previously unexamined is Sgt. Schaefer’s compensation, which has risen significantly under her command.
