Common Council Approves City Administrator Contract Revisions With Pay Increase, Benefit Reduction

In what was a calm open session discussion, the Waukesha Common Council changed City Administrator Lori Luther’s contract to give her a 1 percent raise effective retroactively Jan. 1 and another 1 percent pay increase July 1.

The raises are the exact raises that were approved by the Common Council a year ago for the city employees following a wage freeze that was implemented in 2010.

In that move, they also voted to have Luther contribute 5.8 percent of her salary into the Wisconsin State Retirement system, which brought an overall savings of $5,054 from the city’s budget.

The Common Council originally met in closed session without Luther present to discuss the performance evaluation before voting in open session. Common Council Paul Ybarra asked the council to allow incoming aldermen Brian White and Andy Reiland to be present during the closed session, which was accepted.

“If this council denies this package that means there will be only one employee in the entire city who has not received an increase,” said Ybarra, who made the motion to approve the contract change. “Even the mayor has received a $3,000 salary increase this year.

“The city administrator navigated a very tough budget season and delivered this city an executive budget that lowered our property taxes. We are evaluating her 2010 performance and, according to our comprehensive evaluation, she substantially exceeded expectations."

The salary for Mayor Jeff Scrima, who did not speak during open session about the contract change, was set by the Common Council before the mayor was elected.

The Common Council ultimately voted 12-2 to approve Luther’s contract.

“The city administrator voluntarily asked to pay this,” Ybarra said. “She could have said nothing but that is not in her character. She raised her hand and asked to open her contract and save the city money.”

Luther told Waukesha Patch last week she was asking the Common Council to change her contract so she could contribute the 5.8 percent into her pension as other employees will be required to do under Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial budget repair legislation.

Why they said “No”

While saying they were pleased with Luther’s work and performance, aldermen Eric Payne and Joe Pieper voted against the motion, which decreases Luther’s take-home pay by 4.3 percent.

“I understand all the dollars and cents involved,” said Pieper, who added he found it difficult to support the 1.5 percent pay increase when the city is looking for ways to cut $1.5 million from the budget.

Payne said he did not support the raises all other city workers received and he was not going to support Luther’s raise.

“I cannot put my name on a pay increase right now,” Payne said.

A unique challenge

Alderman Rick Tortomasi, who is leaving the Common Council after the next meeting, offered a challenge to Luther, saying he would give about $1,700 to the city if she would promise to remain employed by the city through the upcoming budget year. Luther was a finalist for a city manager position that she was recruited for through a national agency. Luther was not selected for the position in Missouri.

Tortomasi said in the six budget processes he went through, the last three were easier than the first three because of the prior negotiations Luther did with department heads and union members.

“I can’t see us going through another budget without Lori under these conditions.” Tortomasi said.

Substantially exceeded expectations

The Common Council voted unanimously last summer to have Luther’s performance evaluations be conducted by the Common Council president. Instead of prior years performance reviews that were conducted by the mayor, the council evaluated Luther but formalized the process, Ybarra said.

The city department heads, for the first time, were asked to participate in an anonymous survey to share their views on the administrator’s work. Additionally, the Common Council and Scrima were given opportunities to provide feedback on Luther’s work performance.

The process showed that Luther “substantially exceeded expectations” but identified  areas for improvement, Ybarra said.

Alderman Chris Hernandez said he liked the new process, calling it “efficient and effective.”

“The performance evaluation was great,” Hernandez said. “I like that there was a lot of positive comments, but I like that it wasn’t perfect. That is something to be said that the process is working because if you had a perfect score, then something is wrong because nobody is perfect.”

The Votes

• In favor of contract change: Terry Thieme, Chris Hernandez, Paul Ybarra, Paul Furrer, John Kalblinger, Kathleen Cummings, Steve Johnson, Roger Patton, Rick Hastings, Rick Tortomasi, Joan Francoeur and Duane Paulson
• Against the contract change: Eric Payne, Joe Pieper
• Absent: Vance Skinner