Morgan Hill City manager Ed Tewes’ total compensation will rise 2 percent to $254,852 per year starting July 1 – the first raise he has received in three years.
The city council approved the raise at a meeting last month with an amendment to his contract.
The raise in fact provided for a 5-percent raise overall, but three-fifths of that amount will be offset by a simultaneous action to require the city manager to pick up more of the costs of his benefits, according to a report written by Mayor Steve Tate.
The raise is similar to that approved for about 30 “management and confidential employees” and the city attorney, which were approved a couple weeks earlier.
Tate said the raise is justified by a positive performance evaluation for the city manager covering the 2010-2011 fiscal year, and is directly related to Tewes’ budget solutions during the difficult economic times.
“When you look at how we’ve survived the economic downturn, we’re surviving, we’re getting things done with less and less people. He developed the sustainable budget strategy,” Tate said. “It would have been great to have given him a lot more of a raise.”
Tewes’ contract provides for an annual salary increase based on the consumer price index, but for the last two years he has foregone that raise, Tate said.
The city’s total cost for the raise will be $7,750 for the remainder of the current fiscal year, and about $14,000 for the year that starts July 1 if Tewes accepts his contracted cost of living increase.
The raise brings Tewes’ total salary, not including benefits or allowances, to $207,556 for the next fiscal year. He will retain a $6,000 automobile allowance, $780 cell phone allowance, and a $420 fitness allowance – all paid by the city.
Tewes’ total cost of employment to the city, including vacation cashouts and employer contributions to CalPERS, will be about $314,000 next year.
The 3-percent “giveback” stipulated in Tewes’ contract amendment comes from reduced health insurance flex benefits.
The raise approved earlier for 30 management employees, and employees who are not represented by one of the city’s three labor unions, will cost the city about $110,000. Those employees have not received a raise since 2008, and it was recommended as an effort to retain the employees, according to city staff.
According to the state controller’s office, which keeps track of annual public employee pay data for all cities, counties and special districts in California, Tewes’ wages as reported on his W-2 were about $210,000 in 2010 – the latest year for which the information is available.
Tewes said his W-2 taxable wages for 2011 were about $300 less than they were the previous year. In 2009, his W-2 wages were about $217,000.
By comparison in similarly sized cities in 2010, Gilroy’s city administrator made about $208,000, Campbell’s city manager earned about $188,000, and Monterey’s city manager earned about $286,000, according to the state controller.
