Northwood: Non-union city managers given 6% pay raises

4/6/2005

Rather than give non-union city management personnel what has been the traditional yearly salary increase, Northwood City Council recently decided to give them more.

Council was originally thinking of giving all non-union city employees a 3.5 percent pay increase this month.

However, at the mayor's request, council boosted the pay increase for non-union management personnel to 6 percent by a 6-0 vote. Councilman Rick Radocy was absent.

"It's a one-time raise to kind of give them a little step up," Mayor Mark Stoner said. "I believe they've proved themselves. They are doing an excellent job and I just believe that they deserve this."

Non-union city management and their 6 percent salary increases, which went into effect Monday, are:

● Patricia Bacon, city administrator: from $66,191 to $70,174;

● Jerry Herman, police chief: from $61,645 to $65,338;

● Tom Pack, fire chief: from $54,454 to $57,720;

● Tom Cairl, police captain: from $54,096 to $57,330;

● Toby Schroyer, finance and revenue director: from $55,657 to $58,994;

● Craig Meier, director of public service: from $52,000 to $55,120;

● Laura Schroeder, clerk of court: from $41,134 to $43,602;

● Heather Sayler, planning, zoning, and economic development coordinator: from $36,034 to $38,194.

Other non-union city employees, which include 14 non-management personnel and all members of the Northwood Volunteer Fire Department, received what has been the traditional 3.5 percent annual pay increase on Monday.

Members of the fire department now have salaries that range from $9.16 an hour for a recruit to $15.31 an hour for a chief of emergency medical services.

City employees have received a 3.5 percent salary increase each year in April since 2002, said Toby Schroyer, finance and revenue director. He said the salaries of non-union employees are reviewed in April because the city finalizes several union contracts in January.

Before the traditional pay increase began, Mr. Schroyer said the city hired a consultant in 2001 to study the pay scales for all city employees to compare their salaries with those employed in similar area cities.

Based on the consultant's recommendations of what the employees should be paid, employees received a raise that ranged from 3.5 percent to 15.38 percent in 2001.

But Mayor Stoner said that brought the management up into the lower range of what employees in other cities were being paid, which is why he proposed the extra boost this year.

He said he suggested the 6 percent increase because that is comparable to what union employees have received in the past, and because there have been instances in the past where management personnel left after being denied the raise they asked for.

"Rather than risk that, when people have proved themselves, I think you need to compensate them," Mayor Stoner said. "If you have good people I think you have to pay them or they can move on."

The compensation for elected officials will remain the same. The three councilmen who were elected after March 13, 2003, are paid $7,000 a year. The remaining four councilmen are paid $6,000 annually. If they are re-elected, their salaries will jump to $7,000 a year.

Mayor Stoner, whose position is part-time, is paid $12,000, up from the $11,000 he was paid in 2003.