By Steve Huffman

shuffman@salisburypost.com

SPENCER — Spencer Town Manager Larry Smith was voted a 5 percent pay increase earlier this week.

The vote by members of the town's board of aldermen was unanimous.

Smith's salary was increased by about $2,800 to $62,489.

"Larry does a tremendous job," said Mayor Jody Everhart.

The vote to up Smith's salary came at the end of a closed session during which aldermen critiqued his work. Everhart said aldermen agreed that Smith performed his job well.

Everhart said aldermen graded Smith on a number of things pertaining to his job — ranging from board communications to leadership effectiveness to community relations.

Aldermen could rank Smith on a scale of 1 to 3 on those various criteria. A ranking of 1 meant Smith wasn't competent in a particular area, 2 meant he was doing his job and 3 meant he was exceeding expectations.

Everhart said most of Smith's ratings were 3. He had no ratings of 1.

Everhart said Smith's raise might have been greater if the local and national economy were in better shape. He said aldermen were reluctant to give Smith a percentage raise larger than other town employees might receive.

Everhart said that if Smith had an area in which he could improve, it might be that he needed to learn to delegate more responsibilities to others.

"Larry is a workaholic," Everhart said. "He sometimes tries to take too much on himself."

Smith, 35, was named town manager in October 2005 after serving a six-month trial period. He was Spencer's land management director before being named town manager following the resignation of Kevin Howard.

Smith is a Marine veteran and graduate of N.C. State University where he majored in philosophy of law.

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