With little discussion, a fatigued council approved raises for
the city administrator and clerk late Monday night.
With little discussion, a fatigued council approved raises for the city administrator and clerk late Monday night.
The body voted 4-3 – with Council members Bob Dillon, Craig Gartman and Perry Woodward dissenting – to approve a $4,745 raise for City Clerk Shawna Freels, bumping her annual salary up to $99,653. The council – by the same vote with the same split – also gave City Administrator Tom Haglund a $9,950 raise to make his salary $208,950. However, like all employees who took 10-percent pay cuts due to furloughs, Haglund and Freel’s actual yearly salaries will total $189,662 and $90,454, respectively, through June 2011. No city employees will receive any merit raises through June 2010.
The council’s decision came after it had spent the bulk of the meeting deliberating over urban service agreements for two proposed developments, both of which were ultimately rejected. Council members addressed the issue of raises toward the end of the meeting, in accordance with the agenda, and they appeared weary as they discussed the subject after 11 p.m. Most attendees already had left by the time they voted on the matter.
During brief public comments, Council member Dion Bracco, who owns Bracco’s Towing, explained why he voted for the raises.
“My employees don’t get raises, and they don’t even ask, but this comes down to an issue of fairness,” Bracco said.
The council froze annual merit raises for all employees in March after approving 48 layoffs. Yet, three months later, the council approved contracts with the city’s five bargaining units – which do not include Haglund or Freels because they are Gilroy’s only two council-appointed employees – and those contracts restored merit raises for the unions in the 2008-09 fiscal year, which ended June 30. Freels’ and Haglund’s raises stemmed from their yearly performance evaluations left over from January and May, respectively.
“The rest of our employees got a merit increase, so I think it’s only fair to grant it for the two employees who work directly for us and do an excellent job,” Bracco said. “(Freels) shows up at my house at 8 p.m. delivering stuff, and Tom’s job has been grueling since he got here.”
Councilwoman Cat Tucker said it was the council’s job to look out for Freels and Haglund, given that they have no collective bargaining representation.
“They only have us,” she said.
The city’s various union representatives were not present but have generally supported the raises, saying they are in line with raises every other city employee received last fiscal year.
The three council members who opposed the pay increases did not talk during the meeting, although Councilman Craig Gartman said Tuesday that they had discussed the matter in the past.
Gartman said he opposed the pay raises for economic reasons. He said he disagrees with the notion that union and non-union employees should be treated the same. Council members have taken a pay decrease recently, and he believed that that the council’s two employees could do the same.
“I was hoping they would say thanks for the offer, but we believe that in this economic time we will forego this raise,” he said.
Councilman Perry Woodward stressed that Haglund and Freels have done a wonderful job, and he had a difficult time voting against the raise. At the same time, he said he felt he had to vote against it under the current economic circumstances. He said one of the reasons that Haglund’s job has been hellish is because of budgetary matters.
“We can’t be laying off police and firefighters and at the same time giving raises to city administrators,” he said.
Woodward said he did not speak up during the meeting because he did not believe his words would have impacted the final decision.
“I didn’t harbor any illusions that I was going to change anyone’s mind,” he said.
Reporter Jonathan Partridge contributed to this story.
