Throwing Other People’s Money Around

The El Paso Times ran an editorial Sunday that was atypically critical of city government.

The El Paso City Council’s decision to give City Manager Tommy Gonzalez an unsolicited, bolt-from-the blue $61,000 raise in base pay is inexcusable and indefensible.

The council voted 6-2 on Tuesday — with Reps. Lily Limon and Carl Robinson dissenting — to raise Gonzalez’s base bay from $239,000 to $300,000 after a year on the job. They also improved his benefits package, including increasing his deferred compensation.

The public had no warning that such a raise was being contemplated, and Gonzalez’s contract called for a 5 percent increase. The City Council chambers were largely empty when the council voted at the end of its meeting to give Gonzalez the 25 percent raise that members insisted he had not sought.

I wonder if Mr. Gonzalez would have approved of the raise if he’d been a disinterested third party. He advocated, and Council approved, giving city employees a one time cash infusion as part of his proposed budget.

The El Paso City Council on Monday voted to give city employees a $500 to $1,000 bonus as recommended by City Manager Tommy Gonzalez’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2016.

The one-time $1,000 payment would apply to non-uniformed employees who have worked for the city at least a year. The recommendation approved 5 to 2 by city representatives also includes a $500 lump-sum payment for employees with less than one year of service who successfully completed their probationary period.

The advantage of a bonus versus a raise is that it’s a one-time thing. A raise is an annuity, year after year and paycheck after paycheck. If things don’t go well next year, is the City going to cut Mr. Gonzalez’ salary? Couldn’t they just have leased him a Lamborghini instead of promising him sixty grand a year (plus an annual five percent increase) until his contract runs out?

Couldn’t they just have given him a piñata stuffed with twenty dollar bills? For me, nothing says love like a piñata stuffed with twenty dollar bills.

The bigger problem is that our elected officials are disconnected from regular El Pasoans. The median household income in El Paso is $40,880 a year. To a household that makes $40k a year, a $61k raise seems like a lot of money.

Like the Times points out, at least we should have been able to talk about it.

The $61,000 annual raise City Council approved is also $5,000 less than the $56,000 historical survey this same City Council rejected three weeks ago. Council claimed then that the stakeholders hadn’t approved of that outlay. Somehow our elected representatives didn’t think consultation with the stakeholders was necessary for this ongoing $61,000 annual commitment.