CC Minutes - 06/21/06 Work Session

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Mr. Kelly ascertained from Mr. Chouinard that what this combined motion accomplished was that in addition to the COLA, it would raise the City Manager’s pay by an additional 8.1 percent which amounted to approximately a $12,000 increase above the COLA. He thought the salary increase should be reflective of the reviews given the City Manager’s performance. He said since City Manager Taylor’s average review was a three on a scale of five, this struck him as “way out of line.” He was also puzzled as to why the City of Eugene was trying to close the gap with the entire western United States average including California and Colorado. To him it seemed unreasonable. He felt City Manager Taylor did a lot of very good work, but there were also very significant problems that had come up in the evaluation. Mr. Papé concurred with much of what Mr. Kelly had said. He felt there was a need for improvement particularly with regard to how things were communicated to the council and to the community. He thought a move to Step 6 was excessive. He did not know why the City of Eugene would want to close the gap with the entire western part of the country. Mr. Papé, seconded by Mr. Kelly, moved to delete Option C and to amend Option A to read “adjust the City Manager’s compensation to $138,000 annually.” Mr. Papé affirmed, in response to a question from Ms. Solomon that the increase would include the half step and the COLA. The motion to amend passed, 5:3; Mr. Poling, Ms. Ortiz, and Mr. Pryor voting in opposi- tion. Ms. Ortiz commented that she could not support giving the City Manager less than what he was due. She said he worked very hard. She expressed dismay that the council would not choose to compensate him in a manner that better reflected this. She did not have a problem giving him the salary increase delineated in the original motion and wished to clarify that the only reason she was supporting the current motion was that she wanted the City Manager to get a raise. Mr. Papé agreed that City Manager Taylor worked hard, but he was more interested in results. He said while the council was getting some “pretty good results,” he wished to see more results and some faster results in certain areas. He suggested that a subcommittee of the council be formed for the next City Manager review. Ms. Taylor preferred to implement a COLA that was comparable to the lowest-paid employees. She agreed that the City Manager worked very hard. She did not like comparisons to other cities and wished to underscore her belief that people come here because they like it, knowing that the average salary was low. She opined that Eugene did not need to try to keep up with other places. Mayor Piercy said she was sorry that the salary increase would not be a whole step. She agreed that the council could have spent more time looking at Option C. She averred that the City was in a healthy condition due to the good work of the City Manager and staff. She declared that he had earned the compensation reflected in both Options A and B and she was sorry the council was not delivering that to him at this time. The amended motion passed, 6:2; Mr. Kelly and Ms. Taylor voting in opposition. MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 21, 2006 Page 3 Work Session