City Manager Receives "Excellent" Rating and 2.5% Raise.
An uncomfortable council took several moments of silence and quite a bit of back and forth about averages to finally come forward with a motion, sponsored by Mr. Boyd, to rate the City Manager as excellent. The vote passed 6 to 2 with Mayor F. and Tim Day voting against.
This was followed up by a long discussion about many facets of the City Manager’s compensation package and his job seeking. The discussion remained professional and only a few hints of hostility ever surfaced. Chris Berardi tentatively offered a motion to provide a 2.5% raise. The City Manager, looking glum, stated that he would be satisfied with only the 2% raise required by contract. The City Manager reminded council that he has had a far lower percentage increase than other City Employees during his employment. Mr. Berardi chose to allow his motion to stand at 2.5%. The motion passed 7-1 with Tim Day voting against.
I would have preferred that the rating be “Fully Satisfactory” to reflect the varied problems over the last year. I still believe that our City is lacking quite a bit in communications. I also would like to see more input received from citizens in more venues. I would like to see the City embrace more of the Internet’s available technologies for gathering input and publishing information.
