David Treme may be wishing right about now that he’d had Doug Paris — or whoever negotiated Paris’ contract — work out his deal with the city, as well.
After more than 25 years as Salisbury’s city manager, Treme retired in 2011 and received about $72,000. That figure included payout for unused annual leave and a performance bonus equal to three months of Treme’s salary.
By contrast, Paris left the same position after little more than two years and walked away with $209,000. That figure includes a full year’s salary at $135,000, plus compensation for accrued annual leave, holidays and 630 hours of sick leave. The official word is that his contract was “mutually terminated,” thus the required severance.
While council members say that contract is not out of the ordinary, some are now saying they were taken aback by the total payout to Paris. No wonder, then, that they want to look hard at the contract for the next potential city manager.
They also want more of what one council member called “checks and balances” with the next city manager and more oversight of city business. While the manager of any city or town has to be allowed to run the daily operations of the municipality, it doesn’t look good for elected officials to be unaware that one of the municipality’s employees is getting big raises, as was apparently the case with former city communications director Elaney Hasselmann.
Mayor Paul Woodson and Mayor Pro Tem Maggie Blackwell said Thursday they didn’t know about the $17,654 raise Paris gave Hasselmann in 2012 or the $18,000 raise the former city manager gave her in 2013. Nor did either know why Hasselmann — who resigned the day after Paris — got a nearly $33,000 severance package of her own. Woodson said, however, he isn’t going to second-guess the city executives who gave her that severance.
Maybe he’s not, but someone should. Why does a city employee who quit her job get such a sizable sum when she — unlike Paris — had no contract that required it? Don’t the people footing the bill for that severance deserve to know?
Whether or not we ultimately get answers about what really happened here — an amicable split rarely results from a five-hour closed session — city officials are right that going forward, they need to have a better handle on what’s going on at City Hall between council meetings.