UPDATE | City manager gets $15k pay raise

Published 11:17 am Saturday, November 7, 2015

The Bainbridge Island City Council unanimously approved a new contract for City Manager Doug Schulze Tuesday, and the agreement includes a pay raise of nearly $15,000 that will push the salary for the city’s top employee to $170,000 a year.

Mayor Anne Blair said the council has appreciated the professionalism Schulze has brought to city hall.

“We were generally very satisfied with the work he has done,” Blair said.

News of the large raise for Schulze created a firestorm of criticism on social media this week.

Blair acknowledged the concerns raised by residents, but said most of the criticism centered on the amount of salary set aside for Schulze, and not performance issues.

“He certainly and absolutely has our confidence.

“I don’t even have a qualifier except to say, he is a human being; perfection is not possible,” Blair said.

Schulze was hired in September 2012, and his current contract was set to expire on Wednesday, Nov. 4.

The council and manager have been negotiating a new contract in recent months, and the new agreement stretches 10 pages. Unlike his first contract with the city, which ran for three years, the new employee agreement will automatically renew on an annual basis unless Schulze retires or is fired.

Under the proposed contract, Schulze will be paid an annual base salary of $170,000.

Schulze was hired at a salary of $150,000, and he currently is paid $155,287.

Schulze’s new salary won’t be set in stone forever, however.

Schulze will continue to get pay raises after Jan. 1, 2017, whenever other management employees also get increases. The city council also retains the ability to consider pay raises for the city manager on an annual basis.

The new contract also includes health, disability and life insurance benefits, paid vacation (up to 10.33 hours per month, rising to 15.33 hours per month for the next five years) and sick leave, and also six days of “management leave.”

The contract includes an annual automobile allowance for $3,000 a year, and the city will also pay a match of 15 percent of Schulze’s salary each year into his retirement plan.

The agreement also defines how much Schulze will be paid if he is fired without cause, or is asked to resign.

If either happens, Schulze will be paid half of his annual salary at the time of his termination, and will also be paid for any unused vacation leave. The city will also continue to pay for his medical, dental and vision benefits and cover his family’s health insurance for six months.

With the pay hike, Schulze becomes one of the best-paid city managers in the state.

According to a 2015 salary survey of city managers and administrators across Washington state, Schulze will rank as the 18th best-paid manager of all cities in the state once his new contract kicks in.

The salary study, conducted by the Association of Washington Cities, covered 130 cities and towns across Washington state; four cities (Spokane, Bonney Lake, Toppenish and Sequim) did not provide salary details for their chief administrative officer.

With the exception of Schulze, and the city manager of Covington, all of the city managers/administrators who are in the top 20 in terms of pay in Washington work for cities that are larger than Bainbridge. Most double Bainbridge in population, or are much, much larger.

Schulze’s peers at similar-sized cities make, on average, less than what Schulze received as his base pay when he began work for Bainbridge at the end of 2012.

According to the AWC salary study, the average annual salary in 2015 for a city manager/administrator in cities between 15,000 to 29,999 in population is $147,768.

While Schulze has not yet had a performance review completed for 2015, he received high marks in his last performance review in 2014.

He scored an 8.9 on a scale to 10 in leadership, which prompted Councilman Val Tollefson to write in the review: “Based on my perception of morale and relations between staff, council and the community, my sense is that Doug is proving himself to be a very effective leader. A ‘10’ would have required him to have seized on a particular initiative (or two), and used his position to publicly and effectively advocate until it was accomplished. I believe Doug has been looking for an opportunity to do this, but apparently hasn’t found it yet.”

Not everything in the 2014 evaluation was glowing praise, however. Schulze was faulted for being reactive rather than proactive, as well as being adverse to risk and reluctant to jump into the fray on the more challenging issues facing the city.

Councilman Roger Townsend added this to the 2014 performance review: “Doug has a good understanding of the complicated dynamics with Bainbridge politics. He generally stays out of the political issues and this is a safe approach. Personally, I would like to see him get more directly involved in some of the more problematic political hornet nests. His mere appearance at some of these events would have a positive impact to convey to citizens that he hears them. I have no doubt, however, that he is listening and aware of all of the issues that are going on.”

Blair, the mayor, said this week that Schulze’s performance evaluation for this year was not complete, in large part, due to the six weeks she was away from city hall due to health issues.

That review will still be completed, she said.

Schulze previously was the city manager in Normandy Park, and before he took on that job in 2006, he served as city manager in Medina for a decade. He has also been a city administrator for the city of Sandstone, Minnesota (1992 to 1996) and assistant city administrator in Savage, Minn. (1988 to 1992).

Schulze has a master’s degree in urban and regional studies from Minnesota State University, and a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Minnesota State University.