Nantucket Sheriff's Pay Would Nearly Double In New State Budget

Nantucket Sheriff Jim Perelman didn’t ask for a raise. But he might be getting one anyway. A big one.

Under the House of Representatives’ proposed state budget, the salaries for all 14 Massachusetts sheriffs would be set at $195,000. That’s a fairly substantial raise for most of them, but for Perelman, it would nearly double his current salary of $108,800.

The potential pay bump came as a surprise to Perelman.

“Nobody ever called me, asked me, or told me,” Perelman said. “I saw it in the Boston Herald. I’m not going to refuse it if it comes through. I don’t know what to say. But I didn’t run for sheriff because of the money, and the people who voted for me didn’t do it because of what I would be paid.”

Perelman, the former owner of The Boarding House restaurant on Federal Street, had a successful catering business and also served as a court officer before he decided to run for the Nantucket County Sheriff position in 2010 and take on a two-term incumbent in Richard Bretschneider. Perelman defeated Bretschneider, who was embroiled in controversies including an ethics complaint, in a landslide. He was reelected handily in 2016 and announced earlier this year that he is running for a third term in the November election.

The Nantucket County Sheriff’s office is something of an oddity. It is by far the smallest sheriff’s office in the state, and the only one in Massachusetts that does not operate a jail or correctional facility. The island’s sheriff office (located inside the old police station on South Water Street) has a small staff of three full-time employees and some part-time staffers, and it’s primary duty is transporting prisoners to and from the Barnstable County Correctional Facility.

While the Herald and Boston talk radio host Howie Carr have taken their shots at Perelman (the Herald said he “is about to hit the lottery”), Perelman said they don’t consider the fact that he’s often returned unused portions of his budget to the state over the years.

“I give money back every year,” Perelman said. “I’ve given probably $1 million back in my 12 years as sheriff.”

In addition to prisoner transports, the Nantucket sheriff is also responsible for serving civil process such as eviction notices and court-ordered child support, resolving landlord-tenant disputes, and handling sheriff sales of real estate in foreclosure cases. The fees collected for civil process – roughly $10,000 to $12,000 annually – are distributed back into the community by Perelman through grants to nonprofits like A Safe Place and Fairwinds Counseling Center.

Perelman has gotten involved with numerous community programs and also assists the Nantucket Police Department in a variety of functions.

Last year the state approved a $13,000 raise for Perelman, the first he had received in more than six years, bringing his annual compensation to $108,000. The salary is significantly less than his counterparts on the mainland in recognition of the island’s lack of a correctional facility.