One Port Huron city councilman’s attempt to investigate the city manager’s compensation this week fell short.
During Monday’s regular council meeting, a resolution from Councilman Scott Worden to “authorize a review” of City Manager James Freed’s wages to “determine if any discrepancies exist” failed to earn support from anyone else on council.
Although the topic’s mention at the meeting was brief, other officials earlier in the day disagreed over whether there was a foundation for the request in the first place.
“The resolution itself is asking for information and an investigation because he’s pretty much saying (Freed is) taking extra pay that he didn’t deserve,” Mayor Pauline Repp said early Monday afternoon.
‘It’s a moot point’: What is the issue?
In statements outside of Monday’s meeting, Worden has expressed concern over the way Freed’s received a 2 ½% pay increases in step with those of the city’s other non-unionized employees.
The councilman did not outright express concern over Freed’s administrative performance. But after Monday’s meeting, he pointed to a lengthy written statement detailing those concerns, particularly regarding Freed’s last council-approved contract, which does not outline pay increases.
Worden pointed to council’s authorization for Freed to grant union and non-unionized employees pay adjustments, arguing “this does not authorize the city manager to grant himself raises.”
Freed deferred comment to Repp.
The mayor, who’s been in the position 11 years and served a long career in the city clerk’s office prior, said although they could be more explicit in future spring budget documents that employee step increases include Freed, “it was expected at the time he would get whatever everybody else would get.”
“It is a policy that has been used with past city managers going back a lot of years,” Repp said. “So, I can say this is not unusual. It is not maybe spelled out maybe the way that Scott would like in his contract. But (Freed) hasn’t hid it. … It’s not like it’s a secret.”
Worden’s resolution would have requested payroll records and other documentation be provided to council. Still, officials said much of that was information Worden already had access to.
“The information that he asked for … was provided to him. There’s no issue. So, it’s a moot point,” Repp said. “There’s no reason to go anywhere with the (resolution).”
Worden last referenced issues related to Freed’s wages and his budget line item in May before council OK’d the budget for the current fiscal year, which began July 1.
Repp, Mayor Pro Tem Sherry Archibald and Worden, who’s previously challenged Repp for mayor, are seeking re-election this November. The deadline to file was in July. When asked about the timing of his request Monday, however, Worden rejected the idea he waited until closer to the election to bring up the issue again.
“Of course not, it’s nothing to do with that,” he said. “Every line item I look through, I look through. Then, this came up, and (I) said, ‘OK, wait a second. This doesn’t add up.’ It’s my job as a councilmember to say, ‘Wait a minute.’”
The history of Freed’s wage adjustments
Freed’s initial three-year contract when he became city manager put his salary at $110,000 a year. Later, he and council agreed to amend it and cut his pay by $3,000.
Eventual step increases had brought his salary up to more than $114,000 when a new five-year contract with the city manager OK’d by council in early 2017 aimed to freeze his wages through 2022. Worden was the only dissenting vote to that contract, though his reasoning at the time was unrelated to the money or Freed himself.
A year later, council agreed to amend Freed’s latest contract once again, increasing his salary to over $126,000 after a study showed city manager compensation in half a dozen other Michigan communities was much higher than Freed’s. Worden and Councilman Ken Harris voted against that change.
That study had also shown Freed was making less than previous Port Huron officials. But despite the discrepancy in 2018, Freed’s salary with non-unionized step increases since shows he’s catching up.
What was over $130,000 by the last fiscal year as of June is now roughly $139,000.
Harris had also brought up city manager finances last spring. He and Worden pointed to a section of the 2020-21 budget that included other administrative costs.
At the end of May, Freed emailed Repp and council members that his salary included a council-authorized “cost-of-living increase that all employees got.”
Worden had alleged Repp and Freed discussed salary increases behind closed doors. Repp said she was insulted by the notion.
“The $169K budget number referenced (in line items) … includes a proportion of admin staff wages, as we share an assistant,” Freed wrote. “The budget does not dictate my wage, only a vote of council can do that. Mayor Repp has never taken any action to adjust my wage without a majority vote of council.”
Salary adjustments for non-union employees in pay periods beginning in June 2018, 2019 and this year were OK’d by council in April 2018.
Worden did not renew allegations this week against Repp and Freed. However, when asked, he did reiterate his belief the city manager’s salary adjustment should only come in individual council votes.
Freed’s current contract enables council members to consider pay increases “for each year after (the) city manager has received an average overall composite performance evaluation at or above a rating of ‘meets expectations.’” It does not explicitly say that can’t be done in conjunction with other employees.
On Monday afternoon, Harris said he did “understand where Scott’s coming from” and that he wasn’t sure if he’d back his fellow councilman’s resolution at that night’s meeting.
“I don’t know if we strayed from pay-by performance or give whatever everybody else gets. I’m kind of torn,” he said. “I don’t know if I want to create a commotion.”
Harris, who isn’t seeking re-election this year, admitted he may also interpret things differently than other councilmembers. The issue wasn’t, he said, that Freed had done anything wrong or didn’t deserve the pay adjustments.
“Maybe Scott interprets it different than I do,” he said. “It doesn’t stand out (as) an issue like, ‘Ken Harris takes a thousand when he was only entitled to 500.’ It’s nothing like that.”
Freed’s performance is currently under review, as it is annually. Repp said those written statements were due to her Monday and that she expected most of them at that night’s meeting.
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.
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