A Grand Rapids city official who was on administrative leave and appears to have only worked for part of the year was recently paid $230,593. Grand Rapids’ fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30, and in late March, it announced that the highly paid individual was leaving the city’s employment.

Other city records suggest that the big payout for what appears to have been a short year may have been, in part, the product of a $96,566 severance agreement.

Former Utilities Director Michael Lunn’s gross pay during the city’s fiscal 2019 year was listed as $230,593. That’s according to salary information obtained in response to a Freedom of Information Act request to Grand Rapids. Only City Manager Mark Washington earned more that year; his gross salary was $251,588.

Grand Rapids placed Lunn on paid administrative leave on Feb. 14 and investigated him for what it called a “personnel matter,” MLive reported.

City officials haven’t said why Lunn was placed on administrative leave. But in a March 27 email, the city announced he was leaving his job.

“I want to make you aware of Mike Lunn’s decision to leave the City and start preparing for retirement,” wrote Tom Almonte, an assistant to the city manager, in a March 27 email to other city officials.

Lunn, however, did not retire. According to his LinkedIn account, he started working as chief innovation officer at Primodal Inc. less than a week after the March 27 email announcing his departure from his city job.

The city of Grand Rapids stated that Lunn's severance "was a personnel matter that resulted in both parties agreeing to a mutual separation and release agreement."

Editor's note: This article has been updated with the city of Grand Rapids' response.

The 2019-20 Michigan Department of Education teacher of the year saw her base pay stagnate over the past five years, and last year, she actually collected $2,800 less than she did five years ago.

There have been numerous stories this year about the average pay of Michigan teachers. But one thing that gets less attention is how the best teachers are trapped in a compensation system that doesn’t reward their excellence.

In Michigan’s public schools, salaries are not based on a teacher’s effectiveness. In virtually every conventional public school district, teachers unions negotiate salaries based on two components — college credits acquired and years of seniority.

The base salary of the Michigan’s 2019-20 teacher of the year did not change from 2011-12 to 2017-18. The reason: The district and the union signed a contract in which the top salary of $85,574 did not change. Teachers moving up the so-called steps in the contract, which are based on seniority and education credits attained, still received a pay increase. But those at the top of the pay schedule were frozen out of a step increase.

The total salary of this year’s teacher of the year actually fell from $92,263 in 2013-14 to $89,424 in 2017-18. The earlier figure was above the top-of-the-scale pay cap due to payments for performing extra duties, which could be serving as a department chair, accepting building-level administrative duties, teaching additional classes, serving as a driver education instructor, or teaching summer school or homebound students.

Michigan Capitol Confidential analyzed the salaries of Michigan’s last 10 teachers of the year to see how their pay changed from 2013-14 to 2017-18, the most recent year for which state data is available.

Two of those 10 left the teaching profession and became private educational consultants.

Another teacher of the year became a principal and earned $121,935 in 2017-18. This individual’s salary had increased by $12,659 over that five-year period.

Another teacher retired shortly after winning the award, which came after 20 years of teaching.

Two other teachers saw their compensation go down over the five-year period. One had a gross salary of $73,967 in 2013-14, but only $72,786 in 2017-18. Another teacher of the year saw his total salary drop from $73,109 in 2013-14 to $69,896 in 2017-18. Again, these changes were likely due to the teacher in question accepting fewer extra duties.

Three of the last 10 teachers of the year saw their total salaries increase.

One of the teachers saw her gross salary rise from $61,254 to $69,809, and another’s total pay increased from $94,723 to $97,008. The last teacher on this list saw her gross salary increase from $81,391 to $100,683.