John M. Guilfoil of the Boston Globe Staff write today that Cambridge City Manager – Robert Healy – is the highest paid municipal manager in the Commonwealth and he reports that Healy – quoted in a Walter Robinson /Cambridge Day article – says that he is worth every penny. Healy who has served as city manager since 1981 – made $336,317 in 2010 making his salary double that of the next highest paid managers in the state.  Further,  the Robinson article notes:

Back in 1974, Healy was passed over when the city of Lowell, where he lives, picked a city manager. It was, for Healy, a lucky break. Today, the Lowell city manager’s salary is $145,000. Healy makes nearly $200,000 more than that. Cambridge, like Lowell, has a population of just over 100,000.  (my bold)

The original Walter Robinson report – a collaborative with Cambridge Day and the Initiative for Investigative Reporting at Northeastern University – makes for fascinating reading. Both Cambridge and Lowell are chartered  under the  Plan-E  form of municipal government. In this  tale of a Plan-E city, Cambridge leaves Lowell a distant cousin in the dust when it comes to the manager’s compensation and other contract perks. With retirement a real possibility on Bob Healy’s horizon, one can only wonder what the competition to replace him will bring – both in probable candidates and in the Cambridge “package.”

Read the full Cambridge Day article here and the Boston Globe story here.