Athens-Clarke County manager sees 17-percent pay jump as commission restores raises
While Athens-Clarke County’s mayor and commissioners publicly glowed over what they characterized as a long-overdue 2 percent raise for county government employees, two of the county’s charter officers quietly saw salary bumps several times that percentage.
Manager Alan Reddish and Attorney Bill Berryman received bumps of 17.5 percent and 9 percent, respectively, Tuesday night as part of the ordinance for the upcoming fiscal year’s budget, which includes the 2 percent cost-of-living raise for employees, as well as another 1 percent performance-based raise. The raises for Reddish and Berryman were not discussed publicly and did not appear in an electronic search of Mayor Nancy Denson’s 353-page budget proposal.
According to the budget ordinance, the manager will earn $179,000 in the next fiscal year, up from $152,304 this year; the attorney will earn $155,850, up from $142,955.
Berryman’s and Reddish’s contracts were likewise renewed at Tuesday’s commission meeting when Denson suggested a two-year extension for them during her mayor’s report. A commission vote on the mayor’s suggestion saw the contract extensions approved by all commissioners except Doug Lowry. The agenda did not indicate the vote on the contract would be Tuesday night, though Denson said it is standard procedure for the mayor’s recommendation for charter officer positions to be presented in such a way.
Denson said the raises came about during charter officer’s performance reviews about six weeks ago, attended by all commissioners but Lowry.
Because those reviews were conducted in executive session — state law allows governmental bodies to go behind closed doors to discuss personnel issues — Denson said she could not go into detail about the closed-door meeting except to say the raises were associated with longevity and performance. There was no vote immediately resulting from the evaluations and thus no public record stemming from the meeting, Denson said. She said that based on expectations and prior performance, she suggested percentage increases, which were then accepted by the commission in the vote on the budget ordinance.
“They had not had any raises in a number of years,” Denson said. “Of course, none of the employees has had raises — and this would be the fifth year, except for the $500.” Fiscal year 2009 was the last time the charter officers received a salary increase, Athens-Clarke County meeting minutes show, with the exception of the across-the-board $500 bump all employees received in fiscal year 2013. The charter officers include the attorney, manager and auditor. The auditor’s position did not receive a pay increase this year. Officials said it is because Auditor John Wolfe’s contract was not renewed.
Commissioner Kelly Girtz, who led the chorus in praising employees and the general raises, said individual raises aren’t typically discussed publicly because of their individual nature. But, like that of general employees, those raises were necessary to keep Athens-Clarke County competitive for its top positions, Girtz said. He called Reddish’s and Berryman’s new salaries “middle of the pack” for similarly sized governments in the region. Their bumps are also in line with how long they’ve been without a raise, he said.
“Cumulatively, those pay-for-performance and kind of automatic increases would be in line, given there were several years without any increase in compensation for either Bill or Alan,” Girtz said.
Denson said Reddish’s double-digit jump was in part because of the new economic development department that falls under his purview, and with it, three new positions.
Lowry, the sole vote against renewing contracts for Berryman and Reddish, said there was “zero, no discussion at all” in any public commission session of giving raises to Berryman and Reddish. Lowry said he wasn’t at their employee reviews, but he didn’t see their raises until he was reading the budget ordinance between the May 23 agenda-setting meeting and Tuesday’s voting meeting of the commission.
“These kind of raises should have been made public,” Lowry said. “Even if they were talked about in the performance review, that doesn’t excuse them for not being brought out in the budget. They’re budget items.”
He said he didn’t raise the issue at the meeting because he “felt it wouldn’t do any good” — he and other officials argued briefly Tuesday over the budgeting process, including whether they are able to go through the document line-by-line in a timely fashion — and planned to vote against the budget anyway. He was joined by Commissioner Jared Bailey, who cited problems with hotel/motel tax distribution and the scope of the new economic development department, in his dissent. The budget passed 8-2.
When told Denson’s reasoning for giving Reddish the raise, Lowry chuckled and said “quote my laugh on that one.”