Good City Manager Contract

The contract to hire Glenn Morrison as City Manager was well done.  Terry Clark, Elizabeth Blackstone, Jared Foster (council members), Katherine Davis (city attorney) and Debbie Maynor (director of Human Resources) negotiated what seems to me a contract that is fair on both sides.

The City Manager's compensation package (exclusive of benefits common to all city employees) is $186,000.  That may seem high to you, but it's well within the normal range of executive compensation for managers of a city of this size.

The best things the committee did fall outside direct compensation:

1.  They negotiated a fair severance package.  Glenn will get six months' base pay if terminated without cause.
2. They carefully specified the ways in which the employment contract can be terminated.  Again, it's fair and common-sense, but it's something an earlier council  did not make clear in the last city manager's contract.
3. They based the contract on agreements already in place in other large Texas cities.
4. They sought outside advice in the form of community input and independent legal council.  Both of these should make citizens confident in the integrity of the result.

I think Glenn Morrison is a good administrator and has the capacity to be an even better one.  Congratulations to Morrison and the committee that negotiated the contract.  To the council that approved the contract, maybe not so much.  That's the subject of the next blog post.