Who are the top earners in Ceres? Here are the salaries of all city employees
The top 10 highest-paid employees in Ceres earned a combined salary of over $2 million and over $1 million in benefits last year. The Bee looked closely at salary data for every city employee last year, including regular pay, overtime, benefits and additional compensation.
The highest-paid employee in 2025 was City Manager Doug Dunford, who resigned in March, citing a family medical emergency. Dunford was paid $226,800 in salary and $38,778 in additional compensation, for a total of $265,578 in earnings.
The additional compensation amount includes an auto allowance, a vacation payout and a benefits waiver. He also received $27,216, a 12% educational incentive paid to “attract, retain, and promote a highly trained and skilled professional workforce within city leadership,” Human Resources Director Delilah Vasquez said in an email to The Bee.
Six of the highest-paid employees are police officers, with the top-earning among them being Sgt. Aaron Piñon, who made $112,122 in regular pay, $109,823 in overtime pay, $16,626 in additional compensation and a benefits package worth $119,483. That made him the second-most highly paid person in Ceres at $238,571 in total pay, earning more than Chief of Police Trenton Johnson. Johnson was sworn in as chief on July 31 of last year.
Three police officers also made more in total compensation than the chief, who made $200,134 in salary and additional compensation. But the chief’s benefits package topped every other city employee, valued at $206,059.
In total, the city of Ceres listed 152 full-time employees who were paid a total of a little over $14.5 million in salary and $8.8 million in benefits. Fifty-nine employees make $100,000 or more, and the median salary is around $76,657 in annual regular pay.
