City Reps on City Manager’s Pay Raise

with reaction to el paso’s city manager getting a 26-percent raise. city council voted to give tommy gonzalez a 61- thousand dollar pay raise. meaning he’ll make 300-thousand dollars a year. this, on top of the five- percent increase tied to his evaluation, according to his contract. city reps say gonzalez deserves it based on how much money he’s saved the city — and how much other city managers get paid. the majority of comments on our facebook page show you’re not happy about it. monica says: “i don’t care if he’s saved tons of money for the city. if the city can’t get raises why should he?” and vian says “el paso city government is messed up like always!” very few supporters, but we found this from judith: “think, people. he got hired to a job. he is getting paid for it…” today, abc-seven’s darren hunt asked city leaders about gonzalez’s raise. new at six… … darren continues our complete coverage… rick and estela, i spoke one on one with city rep lilly limon and mayor oscar leeser, who are against the raise… and then i caught up with city rep larry romero, the city rep behind the idea to increase the city manager’s salary. “you break it down, the increas could be the salary of two families in the city of el paso.” city rep lill limon was one of just two city reps, along with carl robinson, to vote against raising city gonzalez’s salary. “this is a big, a big item, and there was no public input, there was no opportunity for the public to discuss it or to weigh in on it.” limon is looking into undoing council’s 6-2 vote. “i don’t know all the mechanics of a potential veto or how that could even come about, but our phones have been ringing and we’ve gotten a lot of messages … it just came up by two of my colleagues, who decided that was appropriate for him.” one of those colleagues was city rep dr. michiel noe. the other? city rep larry romero, who admits he suggested it. “first of all let me stat emphatically that he did not approach me or any of the other council members to my knowledge.” romero said he doesn’t consider gonzalez’s bump in pay a raise. “this is not a raise, to me thi is just getting in the ballpark where other city managers our size, the salaries that they’re making.” asked romero whether gonzalez’s family, especially his wife, are happy here. “i’m sure she has days where he husband gets attacked and criticized and she probably does tell him lets get out of here.” “i am not in support … we hav an agreement and i believe we need to continue that.” mayor osca leeser said there was no need for a new deal. i also asked him whether gonzalez is happy here. “i deal with mr gonzalez on a daily basis and he works very hard every day and he is very happy every day as we work.” leeser added he does think the city manager has performed well, but is already under contract. rick and estela. darren, this has people talking. if you’d like to leave us your thoughts on gonzalez’s pay hike, check out the kvia.com facebook page. if you thought it was terribly hot outside today … you’re