A city nurse earned $350,000. A fire department battalion chief pulled in more than twice as much as the mayor. And a municipal park ranger took home $188,000 in overtime on top of his $71,000 salary.Such generous payouts were criticized for hastening the fiscal downfall of the city of Vallejo, which narrowly averted bankruptcy this month. But the nurse, firefighter and ranger aren't from Vallejo - they're among hundreds of top earners working for the cities of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland.
[Search for the Bay Area's top-paid city employees.]
A Chronicle examination of top salaries in the Bay Area's three biggest cities last year indicates that employee compensation and perks in those cities are similar to - and in some cases more lucrative than - those blamed for pushing Vallejo to the edge of financial doom.
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