Algonac manager’s contract revised; more vacation days, more severance

Councilwoman Wendy Meldrum voted against the adjusted contract

By Barb Pert Templeton

When Artie Bryson agreed to take on the position of city manager in Algonac about eight weeks ago, he thought he was getting all the benefits retiring City Manager Denice Gerstenberg had when she left in November. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and the contract returned to the city council’s agenda on Feb. 17 for some revisions to paid vacation days and the severance package.

City Councilwoman Cathy Harris made the motion to accept the revised contract for Bryson and it was seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Dawn Davey. A majority of the council approved the new contract after a discussion led by Councilwoman Wendy Meldrum who had questions about it and voted against it. The final vote was 4 to 1 as council members Ed Carter and Jake Skarbek were absent from the Feb 17 meeting.

During the discussion Meldrum began by asking why the city attorney kept referring to Gerstenberg’s contract from 2017 as the one to be used to set up Bryson’s contract with the city. Why didn’t anyone notice there was a newer one from 2018 with different numbers, she asked.

“I’m just trying to do a little history here and how we went from one contract in 2017 to bells and whistles in 2018,” Meldrum asked.

Mayor Rocky Gillis said there was only one current council member on the board back then and it was Councilman Michael Bembas. Meldrum said she understood that but her questions were about the fact that the 2017 contract was presented when hiring Bryson a few months ago but now they want to amend it to Gerstenberg’s 2018 terms with different perks.

Calling it “a huge increase” Meldrum said the numbers jump from a $3,000 contribution to a deferred plan to $8,000 in 2018 and then from 15 days paid vacation to 35 days of paid vacation and from 16 weeks of severance pay to 21 weeks of severance pay.

“My question was how in that one year, how is that even possible?” Meldrum asked. “This one individual had the platter handed to them, there were no incentives, no evaluations and no bonuses. So, I’m just trying to figure out how we went from this to this.”

Bembas offers to explain things

Bembas said all of this was nine years ago and frankly, Gerstenberg was simply underpaid. He said someone asked him one time if he’d be interested in being the city manager and he said “quite honestly I couldn’t take the pay cut.” He’s employed as the postmaster for Algonac.

“To keep qualified people, sometimes you need to raise their pay to get them where the norm of the industry is,” Bembas said.

He said pay structures were different years ago and they brought Denice up to what the corporate structure paid. He said they didn’t want to have that merry go round of city managers leaving because other city’s recruit them away with pay incentives.

“So, you’re worried about continuity of government and institutional knowledge going forward?” Harris asked.

“Absolutely,” Bembas said. “And I’m not going to brag about my paycheck but I work for the government too, you have a man making $30,000 more dollars to deliver a stamp and he’s (referring to Bryson) running a whole city.”

Mayor Rocky Gillis said the council isn’t looking at what happened in 2018 but rather the contract at hand. He said the city offered Bryson the same contract Gerstenberg had and “there was a mistake about what contract” but the offer was extended at the same rate the city manager got prior to her retirement.

Meldrum replied that she gets that but numerous emails went back and forth in December so how come nobody realized the contracts weren’t the same. She also said she recalled the salary agreement was for $90,000 and how the city now got to $92,500 as Bryson’s annual salary she doesn’t know.

Sorting everything out now

“Please don’t take this personally, this is business, I’m just trying to understand how we got here,” Meldrum said, noting she recalls going back and forth with the city clerk and the city attorney in December about the vacation time.

“I don’t agree with the 35 days of paid vacation,” Meldrum said. “I believe we all start off at something, but you have to earn that just like all employees have to earn where they go, earn their vacations and earns their compensation.”

“How do we do evaluations and set incentives and bonuses if you’re already at the top, where can you go from there?” Meldrum concluded.

Bembas said “we’re paying for the experience,” and then asked Bryson how many employees he has and the city manager said 15. As the local post master in Algonac Bembas said he has 13

employees, he gets eight weeks of vacation pay, four weeks of sick leave and he gets up to five percent of his pay for a retirement program.

“I get health insurance that you wouldn’t believe and at the end of the year I get dividends et cetera,” Bembas said. “I have 13 employees, if I screw up you get your water bill late…if Artie screws up the water plant shuts down, the fire department’s not running right … his job is a lot more important than mine and again I know you’re making about $30,000 less than a postmaster at my level.”

Bembas said if Bryson was in his 20’s and this was his first job of course they would pay less but for his experience and years in the field, that knowledge and ability to get things done is what they are paying for at this time.

“Let’s just clarify this with everyone in the room and Mr. Bryson, I’m not belittling you or saying that you’re not worthy of it,” Meldrum said. “I’m just saying how did we get here from one year to the next and if that’s where Mr. Bembas feels we’re at then I guess we should probably take a look at the overall structure of how our employees are paid too than.”