S. Tahoe council, city manager reach contract agreement
South Lake Tahoe City Manager Nancy Kerry has agreed to a 3½-year contract that pays $170,000 a year, has the same health and retirement benefits as other employees, and does not come with any extras.
She told the council she does not want a car allowance. Instead, the council has agreed to put aside $4,800 a year into an employee incentive account. This will be used to recognize employees who do exemplary work.
Nancy Kerry
Kerry also agreed to 80 hours of administrative time, which is 40 hours less than the department heads receive.
No automatic raises are built in. It will be up to the City Council if her salary increases between now and when the contract expires in April 2016.
When Tony O’Rourke left in June he was making $188,000, which included the car allowance.
The three previous city manager contracts included nine months of severance pay if the council let them go. Kerry would receive six.
Another cost savings to the city is not paying moving expenses.
The council in closed session Sept. 4 agreed to this contract on a 3-0 vote, with Mayor Claire Fortier absent and Councilwoman Angela Swanson not taking part per legal advice. It will come back to the council in open session on Sept. 18.
— Kathryn Reed
Isn’t normal industry severance pay 2 weeks during the first year and 1 week for every year after that? I know it was with the companies I worked for.
So if I go to work for government and it doesn’t work out they pay me 26 weeks. Now why are we in trouble?
Tahoeadvocate:
I think that negotiated severance is dependent on one’s position. Lower management and regular employees don’t get to negotiate, but certainly CEO’s, COO’s, CFO’s, President’s, Vice President’s, people at the highest levels of decision-making do negotiate for packages. While Kerry’s title is ‘City Manager’ she is in essence like the CEO or President of the organization with the City Council being like a Board of Directors. In this case I don’t think the issue of industry severance standards is quite as applicable. There is some commend-ability that Kerry agreed to 6-months severance versus the 9-months provided to her predecessors O’Rourke and Jinkens, and that she declined the car allowance that her predecessors had received with those funds being dedicated to an employee incentive account to recognize employees who do exemplary work. Also, to get the severance she’d have to screw up and get fired, and I’m hopeful that she’ll have great success and be an asset to our City in its much necessary rebuilding so that the severance won’t ever be necessary.
Why are these city council members making so much money?!! We are talking about over 14K A MONTH!!! That is way too much and it shows were our communities resources are being funneled to. The city council is a crooked bunch of entrepreneurs
Around 4 years ago, thanks to another consultant survey upper management got a 33%+ increase to their salaries. Next thing you know, budgets and rank & file positions were being slashed and eliminated. Seems that City of SLT is no longer about providing services to this community but retaining high paying uppermanagment jobs.
Another example of politicians giving away the store, easy when it’s someone else’s money. What specialized background does this individual have to command such high pay?
The city made the right decision on keeping Nancy as city manager, do you people on this board really think that she is not worth this contract, sorry Steve but people have to be paid what they are worth, I’m sorry but we have a city manager that will get things done and she takes less than past city managers, seems fair to me.
I’ve commented on this issue of public employee compensation before. My problem with her salary is that it is almost three times that of the median HOUSEHOLD income for El Dorado County. That means she, as a public employee, gets to make almost three times what some total households make. For example my wife and I bring in about 65K per year with no paid vacation time or guarantee of severance pay or even the option of a car allowance. But you’re telling me A PUBLIC EMPLOYEE deserves three times that. As hard as her job may be, it doesn’t deserve to put her in a financial position that is greater than most of the people she serves.
If we didn’t have a city what would everyone complain about?
City Managers and other top positions will always earn more than the average household. They have to manage everything, 24/7. Nancy will deserve every penny she earns. I would love to have her salary, yes, but there is nothing stopping me from developing the knowledge and background needed to be a City Manager.
I would like everyone to applaud her for giving up the car allowance and giving it back to employees. High five that and look at the good things to come, instead of harping on the salary. If she didn’t get it, someone else would have.
30yrlocal I’m with you time to move foward!!!!!!!!!
John – just so you know, there is a difference between a city council member and a city employee. Council members are given a stipend of approximately $500 per month for their time.
I say we should all give her a chance to prove herself. Lets face it the last two city managers, the finance director, city attorney, police chief….ect have all left.
It seems that anyone who gets a good look at the books runs for the hills.