These are the highest paid Olathe city employees. One makes over $293k
Olathe tax dollars pay for the salaries of city employees, from city managers and police captains, to municipal judges and information technology managers. But who makes the most?
In 2025, there were 358 city employees who made more than $100,000 per year. Olathe employed a total of 1,920 employees in 2025.
According to a 2024 Census estimate, Olathe has around 149,035 residents.
Governments are required by state law to share how much they pay their employees. The Kansas City Star received salary information from the city of Olathe through Kansas Open Records Act requests.
Johnson County, state of Kansas and federal employees are not included in this list. This is because they are paid by county, state and federal budgets.
The Star has also published salary information for Johnson County, the state of Kansas and the state of Missouri.
Here is the pay of high-ranking Olathe city officials for 2025, according to city records:
- John Wilkes, city manager: $293,778 gross pay
- Susan Sherman, deputy city manager: $266,000 gross pay
- Jeff DeGraffenreid, fire chief: $233,862 gross pay
- Michael Butaud, police chief: $226,586 gross pay
- John Bacon, Olathe mayor: $31,748 salary, $40,278 gross pay (including council expense allowance and a $600 bonus).
- City council members: $15,874 salary, $21,934 gross pay (including council expense allowance and a $600 bonus).
City council members and mayors are not typically top earners because they are usually part-time roles. This is also the case with Olathe. In fact, most city council members have other jobs they work beyond their duties on the council.
The City Council member who serves as mayor pro tem, Marge Vogt for 2025, made a regular salary of $19,048, and gross pay totaling $26,048.
City council regular base pay increased 2.69% from $15,891 in 2025 to $16,320 in 2026.
10 highest paid employees in 2025
Some of Olathe’s highest paid employees in 2025 were leaders of city departments, including the police and fire departments, infrastructure and legal.
A number of the highest earners in Olathe were police and fire department captains, sergeants, officers and paramedics who clocked in more than $30,000 in overtime pay. A water control operator in the city’s infrastructure department logged $37,868 in overtime pay last year.
1. John Wilkes, city manager: $293,778
2. Susan Sherman, deputy city manager: $266,000
3. Mary Jaeger, infrastructure director: $239,866
4. Ronald Shaver, city attorney: $237,817
5. Joseph Sirna, quality of life director: $236,755
6. Jeff DeGraffenreid, fire chief: $233,861
7. Michael Butaud, police chief: $226,586
8. Erin Vader, exceptional services director: $223,999
9. Jamie Robichaud, economy director: $216,916
10. Robert Danneberg, external affairs and issues management director: $206,512
You can see the 2025 salaries of all Olathe employees paid more than $100,000 through a database on KansasCity.com.
This story was originally published February 25, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
