Harlingen city raises based only on merit
HARLINGEN — When City Attorney Roxann Cotroneo recently received her second $25,000 pay raise in as many years, it wasn’t without opposition.
Mayor Chris Boswell said the city’s budget was too tight for a salary that would rival the city manager.
Newly elected City Commissioner Danny Castillo did not vote on the matter, but noted afterward, “There are other city employees who might not be able to get a raise.”
Cotroneo and City Manager Carlos Yerena both received $25,000 raises, bringing their annual salaries to $165,000.
They have defended their raises. And city officials say the pay hikes followed the normal course of the city’s personnel policies.
City employees have not seen a cost-of-living pay increase for a number of years — any raise is merit-based after an annual evaluation, Human Resources Director Efren Fernandez said.
The process by which a city employee gets a raise, and who makes the decision, are spelled out by a precise personnel policy manual, which has not been revised since 2007, officials say.
The city attorney and city manager are the only two employees who report to the City Commission for their reviews and raises, according to documents provided by the Human Resources Department.
Other city department heads report to either the city manager or assistant city manager for their annual review and merit-based salary increases.
Assistant City Manager Gabe Gonzalez was hired in 2001, had a review date in February 2011 and received a pay increase of $3,000 to bring his salary up to $103,100. Gonzalez is also responsible for city departments, and seven department heads report to him.
Yerena oversees Police Chief Tom Whitten, who was recently hired at a salary of $102,000 and oversees 184 people; Planning Director Ken Clark, who makes $72,000 and oversees 30 people; Public Works Director Dan Serna, $101,700, 118 people; Finance Director Roel Gutierrez, $76,800, 32 people; Fire Chief Michael Rinaldi; and Gonzalez, according to human resources documentation.
Rinaldi has been with the city the longest of all department heads. He was hired in 1985, but not as fire chief. His last review was in 2010 when he received a pay raise of nearly $2,400 to bring his salary up to $82,350, according to human resources documents. Rinaldi oversees 113 people in his department.
Employees are hired according to a pay grade set by the city, according to the personnel policy manual. There are 22 grades, and the higher the number, the higher the pay range of the employee.
More education, qualifications and experience enable employees to be hired at a higher pay grade. The grades have been established “upon the basis of a survey of salaries paid by comparable cities and similar jobs in the Harlingen market,” according to the personnel policy manual.
When an employee reaches the highest pay grade, they don’t get raises anymore, Fernandez, the Human Resources director, said. Fernandez said the only way an employee can get another raise after reaching the highest grade is if it is approved by the city manager.
Yerena said since he was hired in September 2010 he has not approved any raises above an employee’s maximum grade.
“I continued the practice that was in place,” Yerena said. “With a tight budget, they were not approving increases for positions that had capped out.”
Fernandez said any salary increase is merit-based after the employee’s annual evaluation and could be anything from a 0 to 3 percent increase.
“We budget a 2 percent salary increase to every department,” Finance Director Roel Gutierrez said. “We know throughout history that Harlingen employees, with a 0 to 3 percent possible raise increase, the average is 2 percent overall for the city.”
Yerena and Cotroneo
Yerena said his raise brings him up to a more competitive level with other city managers in the Rio Grande Valley, citing Mission, Edinburg and Pharr as examples.
“In order to attract a qualified individual you have to give a competitive salary,” Yerena said. “With Harlingen’s population and size, what they are paying me is competitive for this area.”
When previous City Manager Craig Lonon left Harlingen in 2009 he had been working for the city four years and was making $145,678. Tommy Gonzalez, the prior city manager, left in 2005 with a salary of $132,500 and before to him, Roy Rodriguez, who left in 2004 making $112,000.
Cotroneo said when her salary is broken down to an hourly rate, it is much smaller than other city attorneys in Texas who are contracted out for legal services.
