The top-paid city employees in the Salt Lake Valley and northern Utah made an average salary of $117,780 in fiscal year 2011, with an additional $46,483 on average awarded in benefits, bonuses and incentives.

The highest-paid employees in the cities examined by UtahsRight.com were most often employed as city managers, with 48 percent in the 25 cities examined. The Salt Lake Valley cities included in the numbers were as far south as Draper and as far north as South Weber.

City administrators, police chiefs and public works directors also held top-paid spots in the cities. Salt Lake City’s executive director of airports, Maureen Riley, was the highest-paid. Riley’s gross compensation of $259,983 in fiscal year 2011 breaks down to $205,225 in wages and $54,758 in benefits, bonuses and/or incentives.

Behind her, Layton’s city manager, Alex Jensen, had a gross compensation of $215,593, which included $133,287 in wages and more than $82,000 in benefits, bonuses and/or incentives.

The data was compiled by UtahsRight.com for a weekly series in The Salt Lake Tribune’s neighborhood section highlighting information gleaned from public databases. The site provides the raw information in public databases so the public can analyze the data for their own purposes.

Salary information for public employees throughout the state is available at UtahsRight.com.

The cities of Centerville, Clinton, Farmington, North Salt Lake, West Jordan and West Valley City were not included in the numbers because 2011 fiscal year information was either unavailable or incomplete.

Though South Weber’s building inspector Mark Larsen was the highest-paid employee in his city — making $111,014 in gross compensation — he was the lowest-paid of the top employees in the area examined. In fiscal year 2011, he made $74,221 in wages and $36,793 in benefits, bonuses and/or incentives.

Fruit Heights City Manager Brandon Green made the second-lowest amount of top employees in the area, with a gross compensation of $116,348 — which breaks down to $79,320 in wages and $36,793 in benefits, bonuses and/or incentives.

UtahsRight.com, the data website for The Salt Lake Tribune, conducts an ongoing statewide quest for salary information and other public information, including restaurant inspections and information about criminal charges, using public records request made under the state’s Government Records Access and Management Act, also known as GRAMA.