The Monday Mayor’s meetings generate some interesting discussions about City business. The subject of why the City has such high Administrative costs came up and included a comment that citizens were told that the City Manager’s recent pay raise was given in order to be consistent with pay for similar positions in the area.
I first went back and read the Headlight Herald article where Councilor Kozlowski was quoted as saying that the salary increase was “appropriate given other regional comparators”. I then went to the May Council meeting video to listen for myself as to what this was all about. Councilor Kozlowski at the meeting explained that Bay City and Cannon Beach were the only comparison cities mentioned.
There are 18 City Manager positions that Councilor Kozlowski could have reviewed in the Clatsop, Tillamook and Lincoln County area that would serve as appropriate “regional comparators”. No explanation was given why Bay City was such a relevant comparison to Manzanita. She did do a detailed discussion of the total compensation package for the Cannon Beach City Manager including the $12,000 housing allowance that Cannon Beach pays in order that their City Manager can actually live in the City that employs him. A housing allowance is not considered as salary and since Manzanita doesn’t require our City Manager to live in Manzanita, her inclusion of this $12,000 was simply a means to inflate the salary differential and would appear to be a bit disingenuous with her explanation that she wanted to make sure that her comparisons were “apples to apples”. Also omitted was the Cannon Beach City Manager’s 30 years of government experience which would factor into both his starting salary and influence subsequent pay increases to get to his current salary.
When the Mayor asked what the costs were for benefits in addition to the salary increase, neither staff nor Councilor Kozlowski could supply that information. In order to be sure of the facts, I made a public records request of the City to get these new salary and benefit costs for the City Manager. I was first told that the City could not locate any report with this information. When I suggested that the monthly payroll report would have this information, I was advised that the City Attorney would have to review this report and I would be charged $329.37 before I could see it.
I declined to pay for information that Councilor Kozlowski and staff should have been prepared to disclose at the meeting. It appears that the City Manager’s salary is now $140,000 with additional payroll costs and benefits of approximately $58,000 for a total compensation cost of $198,000.
There really was no reason for Councilor Kozlowski’s presentation to be so inaccurate and unprofessionally researched. My 5 minute search of the web uncovered a legitimate regional salary comparison of City Managers that a consultant for Seaside performed last year during the process to replace their retiring City Manager. Some of those findings:
After 37 years as both Seaside City Manager and Finance Director, the final salary was $130,620.
Tillamook was at $87,000, Astoria was at $151,000, Cannon Beach at $149,250 and Warrenton at $125,000. Waldport at $105,000, Florence at $113,110 and Bandon at $118,000. Newport and Lincoln City each pay $125,000 and Hood River pays $145,000. These figures may have increased somewhat since 2022.
As an additional point of reference, when Manzanita City Manager Jerry Taylor retired 5 years ago after 22 years as Manager, his final salary was approximately $80,000.
Should citizens be concerned about recent Administrative cost increases? In the past 3 years, City Hall staff salary and benefit costs alone have increased almost 60%. Total City Hall Administrative costs are up 138%. We are continually reminded that our property taxes are too low and we do not have adequate funding for maintaining infrastructure. Maybe we have more of a spending problem than a lack of adequate revenue.
The City is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for consultants for almost every topic that comes up. Rather than allow an independent party to do an objective analysis for this important decision, this task is performed by the Councilor who publicly proclaims that she is the City Manager’s number one fan. No other Councilor had any questions at the meeting, apparently satisfied with Councilor Kozlowski’s research methodology, conclusions and recommendations. The Mayor asks relevant questions but must be careful since asking questions may result in further criticism, complaints and inquiries.
Salary and benefits are the single largest expense in the City Budget. Why didn’t Councilor Kozlowski produce a written report breaking down salary and benefit costs that was available for both Council and citizens to examine before the May Council meeting? Should Councilors explain why any City employee with 2 years of relevant position experience is receiving a substantially higher salary than the comparable position with greater experience in larger area cities?
The real issue here may not be whether the City Manager should or should not be getting a pay increase of this amount. The concern is that due to the indifferent and inattentive governance by Councilor Kozlowski and the Councils on which she served on during the past 17 years, we find ourselves in the financial and community livability mess that we are now in. 17 years of running the City like a club rather than a multi million dollar public corporation responsible to the shareholder/ resident voters is at the root of our current problems. The lack of any objective analysis, research, questions and choice of presenter for this particular presentation is vintage Club Manzanita governance.
The Council will soon be interviewing candidates to fill the vacant Council position. We should all hope that this is an opportunity to appoint a citizen who is willing to ask questions and make sure that critical thinking and objective fact based analysis is at the foundation of Council decisions especially those involving the Budget and City finances. My more pessimistic side says that is not likely going to happen and this opportunity will end up being nothing more than an audition to ensure that this vacancy will be filled by a loyal Club member.
Randy Kugler
