Council to revisit city manager’s raise on Tuesday

we are expecting tomorrow’s city council meeting to get heated … council is scheduled to discuss and possibly take action on the sudden 61- thousand dollar raise awarded to city manager tommy gonzalez two weeks ago. abc-7’s darren hunt is live with a preview of the discussion … darren. rick and estela, after hearing numerous complaints from constituents, representative claudia ordaz placed the item on tomorrow’s agenda. back on august fourth, after an executive session, council voted 6-2 — ordaz included — to give gonzalez the roughly 25-percent increase. after just one year, gonzalez’s salary went from 239- thousand annually to 300-thousand at the urging of city reps larry romero and dr. michiel noe. only city reps lily limon and carl robinson voted against the big increase. several reps spoke out in defense of their votes supporting the raise, saying gonzalez had earned it by saving the city six million dollars by restructuring top management and stating it was more on par with salaries of other city managers in the state. ordaz told me today, although some may move to delete her agenda item tomorrow, she hopes there is at least a discussion about the process, which she believes was “rushed. she said there are a variety things that could happen if the item is discussed, including a re-vote. “i’m hoping to really accomplis figuring out a better process moving forward, of course i would like to revisit that vote, i don’t know if the support is there … if i were to rescind my vote that would be a 5-3 and the mayor would have the opportunity to veto it.” i spoke with several reps this afternoon, including robinson, noe and romero. it appears the re-vote could be 5-3 in favor of the raise, which would not be a super majority. that would open the door for a mayoral veto, and mayor oscar leeser has stated previously he did not support the raise. i tried to reach leeser on his cell phone today to ask him if he would consider a veto, but i have not heard back from him. rick and estela.