Palmer council approves manager's contract

The Palmer City Council, at a meeting earlier this month, extended its contract with city manager Tom Healy for two years.

Healy came into the meeting with a 2.6-percent raise in his two-year contract and left with a 5.5-percent

increase.

The council started its discussion with a proposed salary of $75,000 annually for the next two years. A motion to approve was entered by council member Tony Pippel. Almost immediately, council member Brad Hanson moved to bump up the salary clause of the contract to $78,000. The motion was seconded by Jim Cooper.

Hanson mentioned in the meeting that all city employees had received a 2-percent cost of living increase last January, in addition to their merit raises.

This year, city employees can qualify for a raise of up to 3 percent based on merit, a rate set by the council during budget sessions and awarded to employees at the discretion of their department managers after an annual evaluation.

Healy received his own evaluation in a closed-door executive session with the council on May 22. That session took just under an hour.

Both Hanson and Cooper made a point of saying they felt Healy had earned their confidence during last week's discussion.

"And I'd like to add that the city manager should get paid more than the golf course manager," Cooper said.

The amendment and the contract approval passed 4-0. Council members Diana Long and John Combs were absent

After the meeting, Cooper said Healy gets high marks for assisting council members and people who have questions about the city.

"When someone comes to me with a question that I don't know the answer to, I take it to him. He is more than willing to look it up in the books for me and show me the way, as it were," Cooper said.

Council member Joe Lawton, who will give up his seat in October, said he had deliberately avoided discussing the manager with other council members because he was stepping down.

"I didn't want to challenge (the contract) for any reason . . . as I recall, we were conservative with what we offered him the first time around." Lawton said.

Although the difference in Healy's annual pay rose 11 percent, the manager's real gain is closer to 5.5 percent over the course of the two-year contract. That's because Healy's last contract included a moving allowance of $7,500.

Counting the moving allowance, Healy's gross pay over the first two years was $147,500 and will be $156,000 over the next two years. Healy's contract also includes exclusive use of a city-owned automobile.

The contract expires Sept. 29, 2003. Healy was originally hired in the fall of 1999, and was previously city manager in Haines.