Anci, the waste city of golden salaries. This is how he makes managers happy –

Dario Martini

March 22, 2024

These days Antonio Decaro feels at war (his words) with the Interior Ministry which is considering whether to dissolve the Municipality of which the PD politician is mayor. If in his administration the tension is cut with a knife, the same cannot be said for the Anci, the national association of Italian municipalities chaired by Decaro himself. The managers who report to the mayor of Bari, in fact, can sleep peacefully thanks to very respectable salaries. The latest updated salaries have been available since last January. Suffice it to say that the number one of the association, the historic general director Veronica Nicotra, takes home the beauty of 257,600 euros (208,600 euros of gross annual salary, 24 thousand in office allowance and 25 thousand as a bonus). Well above what the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella receives, who recently also cut his allowance to 179 thousand euros. Nicotra is the top of the ANCI, but the other managers are not doing badly either, with paychecks that start at 100 thousand euros and easily exceed 200 thousand.

Some might object that the emoluments of public managers cannot exceed the ceiling of 240 thousand euros. Real. But the managers of the ANCI have no obligation to comply with this legislation, as the association, although representing public bodies, responds to private law regulations. Behind Nicotra is Patrizia Minnelli, who in 2023 earned 239,500 euros (143 thousand basic salary, 25 thousand position allowance and 71,500 bonus). Minnelli is responsible for the Marketing, External Relations, Ceremonial and Travel Office areas. For those who don’t remember, she is also the former faithful secretary of the former president of the association and former mayor of Catania of the PD Enzo Bianco, the same party as Decaro. Angelo Rughetti, former member of the Democratic Party and former undersecretary of the Prime Minister’s Office under the Renzi and Gentiloni governments, is undoubtedly also of “democratic” affiliation. Today, as an Anci manager, he earns 228 thousand euros gross, of which 20 thousand are production bonuses alone. Rughetti does not work directly in the association, but is seconded to Ifel, the Institute for Finance and the Local Economy, a foundation that reports to the ANCI, where he is responsible for monitoring municipal investments. The list of “lucky” executives does not end here.

We must mention the deputy general secretary Stefania Dota who also leads the institutional and legislative area. A function that allows her to be able to count on a basic salary of 169,800 euros (the previous year she had fared better with a salary of 194,799). The other deputy secretary with responsibility for digital is Antonella Galdi, who in 2023 received 193,810 euros, also thanks to an ad hoc prize of 20 thousand euros for organizing an event at the Nuvola dell’Eur. It is also impossible to forget Giovanna Marini, currently on secondment at Ifel Campania who earns 192 thousand euros (the previous year they were 168,500) and the head of the Administrative Management Lara Panfili (171,010 euros, of which 12 thousand collected again thanks to the «Nuvola» prize).