City Council lets City Manager’s raise stand

again discussed that controversial pay raise for city manager tommy gonzalez. our maria garcia live with new information. earlier this month, the city council voted to increase gonzalez’s base salary from about 250-thousand to 300- thousand dollars. but one of the city reps who voted for the pay hike – says she heard the loud criticism from the public and now regrets that decision: pkg 16-21 22-30 1:05-1:11 1:12-1:22 02:09 it was a mistake for which i solely take responsibility for city rep claudia ordaz says she supports the city manager. but says the process to approve his raise earlier this month was hastily sprung on the rest of council by city rep larry romero. 03:36 the process and the manner in which it was done raised legitimate frustrations by the public 05:16 you realize how this hurts el paso? you guys make a decision and two weeks later, you come back and bring it up again? we’re losing credibility folks. romero says gonzalez has exceed expectations by saving the city 11 million dollars, solving big problems and getting praise for the city from credit agencies. and after learning the mayor had only incresed gonzalez’s salary by five percent – romero said that wasn’t enough. 05:40 understand my reason for doing this, was to keep a good man here. a man who apparently could break his contract if approached with a more attractive offer: 45:47 honestly i wouldn’t blame gonzalez for leaving and it’d be our fault. “shame o us.” 41:10 dont’ embarrass the city. don’t embarrass yourself and certainly don’t embarrass a great city manager 53:52 this is a dysfunctional city council issue. you all created this mess. this is a mess of your creation. ordaz said human resources wasn’t there to answer questions when the council approved the raise the firt time and there was no official market based salary review. 02:46 the public is rightfully upset about the process the city didn’t do a comprehensive salary review, but city reps larry romero and emma acosta presented research that showed gonzalez was underpaid compared to other city managers. ordaz voted to repeal the raise but she only had the support of lily limon and carl robinson. city reps. emma acosta, cortney niland, michiel noe, larry romero and peter svarzbein voted to keep the raise in place. back to you. and we should point out that since today’s vote was structured as a repeal, and failed to pass, it’s not subject to a mayoral veto. we want to know what you think. do