Quality Of Life Down, City Manager Pay Up
Call it a case of bad timing and even worse judgment.
Shortly after receiving a report Monday night that showed quality of life ratings have slipped for seven neighborhood areas, sinking them into the dreaded “challenged” category, the city council approved giving City Manager Curt Walton a sweet pay hike.
Walton scored an annual compensation package of $234,537, up from last year when he raked in a measly base salary of $200,312, along with a car and expense allowance and a bonus of $16,000, for a total package of roughly $226,000. His new pay structure is based on a flat salary that includes built-in bonus money and allowances.
“I’m delighted to say we appreciate our city manager and all he has done to keep our city in a very sound financial and beautifully serving state,” said Councilmember Nancy Carter, a Democrat who voted to approve the pay boost, along with Democrats Patsy Kinsey, James Mitchell, David Howard and Jason Burgess. Republican Edwin Peacock, who earlier this year had voted against 2-percent pay hikes for city employees, voted to approve the manager’s pay increase.
“When you place it in the context of what we’re discussing right now, which is keeping a qualified and competent city manager, you have to look at the broader picture of how we’re paying,” Peacock said.
Councilmembers trotted out a chart that showed managers of other similarly sized cities were being paid more than Walton. In Austin, Texas, for example, the city manager makes $281,228, while the benchmark was set at $279,800 in San Antonio.
Councilmembers who voted against Walton’s pay increase were Democrats Warren Turner, Patrick Cannon and Michael Barnes, and Republicans Warren Cooksey and Andy Dulin.
“My preference,” said Cooksey, “would be to pay the manager what he was paid last year, exactly what he was paid last year.”
Walton, though, wasn’t the only government employee to benefit from the council majority’s largess. City Attorney Mac McCarley’s annual pay was bumped to $194,596, up from the $175,781 base salary and $15,000 bonus he received last year.
Mayor Anthony Foxx, a Democrat, doesn’t vote on council-centric issues like salaries, but has previously indicated he didn’t support increasing the manager’s increase in the midst of a brutal recession.
Walton and McCarley, of course, still come away looking like veritable paupers stacked against other chieftains on the taxpayers’ payroll: Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones recently cajoled his way into a new pay structure that delivers a total annual compensation of $283,011; CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman hauls down $302,000; and Michael Smith with Center City Partners, an uptown cheerleading outfit funded largely by a special municipal service district tax, pockets just shy of $300,000 a year.
Talk about your improved quality of life.
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