El Paso City Manager, Attorney given above-average marks by council in performance reviews
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso City Manager Dionne Mack and City Attorney Karla Nieman were ranked above a standard of "meets expectations" in their most recent performance evaluations, according to documents from the City of El Paso.
The annual evaluations include input from Mayor Renard Johnson and members of city council ranking Mack and Neiman each on a scale of one to five, with five being the highest as "exceeds expectations" and three as meeting expectations for someone fully qualified to do the job.
Mack averaged a 4.06 across nine metrics she was measured on - management of the organization, execution of policy, financial management, relations with the council, community relations and engagement, communications, leadership, professionalism, and vision, initiative, plan execution. City leaders marked her highest on professionalism with a 4.32, with the evaluation stating she "demonstrates and models integrity, commitment and consistency in her high ethical standards and principles, even when addressing contentious issues." Council gave the lowest marks to communications at 3.66, still positively noting how Mack "demonstrates a consistent effort to keep council well-informed."
For Neiman, council scored her slightly lower at 3.54 on average on six categories - relationship with the council, management skills and professional attributes, fiscal management, communication, legal consultation, and provision of legal services. Her highest marks were on fiscal management at 3.77 for using in-house staff to limit cost or outside council as appropriate, and the lowest on legal consultation at 3.31 for providing sound legal advice "which has proven to be accurate and technically correct."
On Mack's performance overall, the evaluation mentioned areas where things could improve and specific goals for the following year, such as "improving efficiencies through technology." In particular, a concern about how informed city council was about developing events being reported in the media and council members not being prepared to respond, along with feedback in general. "The City Manager can be at times defensive or overly protective when Council provides feedback or raises questions or concerns about City staff or processes," the evaluation said.
Council said that Neiman's performance overall met expectations with a solid track record, but did note they would like her "to focus on a more proactive, open and engaged approach in her legal consultation with the Council," and to improve her tone of communication along with accuracy, transparency, and more timely responses.
Council set four goals for Mack to work on in the next year - improving the council request and review process, developing a formal communication method for city council feedback quarterly, improving incident communication overall, and including issue briefs on action items.
Neiman's goals focused on communication and the relationship with council, setting four targets for her to improve. They include clear and proactive legal guidance during meetings in particular, making legal issues clear without "using a tone that may seem defensive, dismissive or condescending," being more open to council input and inquiries, and focusing on helping council navigate policy goals.
Mack's current base salary is $358,804.68 per year following the latest of two minimum wage increases in February of this year.
Nieman is currently paid $336,415.40 annually, following more than a dozen merit and other wage increases from her starting salary of $250,000 in 2018.
