City Council vote to repeal City Manager pay raise fails

After hearing from more than two dozen members of the public and discussing the issue for nearly three hours, the El Paso City Council on Tuesday decided to uphold El Paso City Manager Tommy Gonzalez’s raise of almost $50,000.

The issue surfaced after City Rep. Claudia Ordaz said she had listened to the criticism of an outraged public and regretted approving the raise earlier this month. “It was a mistake for which I solely take responsibility for,” Ordaz told the Council and the public on Tuesday.

The City Council had voted 6 to 2 two weeks ago to raise Gonzalez’s pay starting September 1st, from $250,425 to an even $300,000. Ordaz had supported the motion, along with the majority of council and only City Representatives Carl Robinson and Lily Limon had dissented.

But after weeks of hearing from her constituents, Ordaz said she realized the process to approve the raise was hastily sprung on the rest of Council by City Rep. Larry Romero, who had put the item on the agenda earlier this month. “The process and the manner in which it was done raised legitimate frustrations by the public,” she said. Ordaz said Romero did not add any back up documents to the agenda item two weeks ago or advise the rest of council or the public that he was going to propose a raise to allow City Representatives to prepare and the public to provide input.

“This was done incorrectly. It should have been done openly. Therefore I had no research to bring to that meeting. I had no phone calls that I had made. I was simply going in on the premise that there would be a discussion on the contract not compensation,” said City Rep. Lily Limon.

Romero said the process to approve Gonzalez’s raise was both legal and appropriate. He said he learned the Mayor had approved a five percent raise for Gonzalez after his evaluation, bringing the City Manager’s base salary from $238,500 to $250,425. Romero said that wasn’t enough of an increase given Gonzalez had exceeded expectation by saving the City $11 million, finding solutions to more than two dozen severe problems within the City’s organization which included a lack of coordination and efficiency and gaining praise for the city from credit rating agencies. “Understand my reason for doing this, was to keep a good man here,” Romero told the Council and the public. He said he consulted with City Attorney Sylvia Firth on how to word the item on the agenda before posting it.

He and several members of the public said it would be embarrassing if the Council reversed the raise. “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 said.

His sentiment was echoed by businessman Dan Olivas, who spoke before the council. “Stick to your guns. Don’t embarrass the city. Don’t embarrass yourself and certainly don’t embarrass a great City Manager.” And the Spokesman for the El Paso Builders Association, Ray Adauto told council: “I for one would not like to work for a board who can’t keep its word.”

“Honestly I wouldn’t blame Gonzalez for leaving and it’d be our fault. Shame on us,” David Saucedo said to the council on Tuesday.

Gonzalaz did not speak during the discussion on his raise and mostly looked down. Tuesday afternoon, he released a statement saying he was humbled by the City Council’s support and those who spoke in favor of the work he’s doing.

Ordaz said she supported Gonzalez and his work but said the City needed to improve the process to approve his raise. She said the City Attorney and the Human Resources office were not present to answer council’s question when discussing the raise and there was no official and thorough market-based salary analysis. The City Attorney was seen summoned by the council and entering the closed session when the council approved the raise.

The city didn’t do a comprehensive salary review, though Romero and Acosta presented research that showed Gonzalez was underpaid compared to other regional city managers.

Ordaz voted to repeal the raise but she only had the support of Limon and Carl Robinson. City Reps. Acosta, Cortney Niland, Michiel Noe, Larry Romero and Peter Svarzbein voted to keep the raise in place.

Editor’s Note: Take our poll at http://bit.ly/1NDBMCU and tell us how you think City Council handled the City Manager’s pay raise.