An electrical inspector made the most overtime pay among Boston employees last year

Most of the time, it’s police officers who rake in the most money in overtime pay in a municipality.

Boston is no exception in that most of the city’s employees who made a lot in overtime pay last year were from the police force.

But for the last two years, a wire inspector has made the most in overtime pay among Boston employees.

His name is Keith Barry, and he made more than $171,000 in overtime last year, nearly tripling his base pay of $93,000.

According to The Boston Globe, Barry has worked for the city as a wire inspector since 2012. The newspaper wrote that it’s the second year in a row he has made the most in overtime pay among city of Boston employees.

The city has 10 wire inspectors, including a chief and a supervisor, the Globe reported. Their job is to review electrical permits to make sure the electrical aspects of various projects are up to code.

The newspaper reported that Boston’s wire inspectors review about 13,000 electrical permits a year. Wire inspectors also inspect electrical issues in a building when a property owner requests help.

The Globe reported that over the last four years, Barry has made more than $676,000 in overtime pay. The newspaper wrote that Boston has seen a considerable amount of construction projects during that time.

Lisa Timberlake, a spokeswoman for the Inspectional Services Department where Barry works, told the Globe there are many reasons why a wire inspector can make so much money in overtime pay.

One big reason is that when wire inspectors do after-hours work that is paid for by third parties, in city accounting, it is lumped into overtime pay, the Globe reported. So while a police officer has overtime and third-party, or detail, pay listed separately, wire inspectors do not.

The department told the Globe that most overtime work comes from third-party contractors, so most of the overtime pay Barry received did not come from city coffers.

Timberlake told the Globe that last year, Barry was paid nearly $153,000 for third-party work, which included 774 inspections. She did not tell the Globe how many hours he worked overtime.

Overtime is offered to inspectors on a rotating basis based on seniority, the Globe reported. Anyone can decline overtime, but the department told the Globe that some inspectors don’t like overtime work while others work as much as they can.

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