What's a fair salary for city managers?

Tempers boiled at Tuesday night's City Commission meeting in Herington.

"Are you being surly?" Bart Hinkle, one of the leading protestors, asked at one point during the meeting as City Attorney Brad Jantz was explaining points of City Manager Ron Strickland's contract.

"No, I'm being straight up with you," said Jantz.

"You're being surly," insisted Hinkle.

Herington City Commissioners changed their minds about a $15,000 raise for the City manager.  But, Strickland will still get a $5,000 raise for a total salary of $91,000 a year.
Some in Herington say that's still too much for a town of that size.  In person and online many of you asked Eyewitness News whether that was a fair salary for managing a town of 2,526 people at the 2010 Census.  Even some other city managers and administrators were surprised.

"Every city has different industry, different pay scales, but it just kind of caught me off guard," said Bill Shroyer, Assistant City Administrator of Sabetha, which had a population of 2,571 during the 2010 Census.

So Eyewitness News investigated the range of salaries, calling the 12 towns closest in size to Herington, with populations ranging from 2,328, Sterling, to 2,706, Hoisington, according to the 2010 Census. 

Eight of them responded.  Two,  Burlington, population 2,674, and Phillipsburg, population 2,581, didn't even have a city manager or administrator.

In none of them did we find a city manager or administrator making as much as Strickland.  The highest paid city administrator or manager was Allen Dinkel in Neodesha, population 2,486, at $77,500 a year.  The lowest paid was Ian Martell of Eureka, population 2,633, who makes  $45,000 a year.  The average came out to $70,172.

Allen Dinkel said, "Population is not the whole key.  In the case of Herington compared to other cities, they have an electric utility and that makes one more responsibility."  His city of Neodesha operates five utilities.

Two towns, Eureka and Hoisington set limits on city managers' salaries.  Eureka had the lowest minimum at $43,730 a year.  Hoisington had the highest maximum at $82,524.

There are city administrators and city managers.  A manager hires and fires while an administrator usually doesn't.  But that's not the only way the job varies, no matter the title.
Exactly what a city administrator or city manager does in small town city halls depends on what the city council wants him or her to do.

Kent Brown, the city administrator in Clearwater, population 2,481, says much of what he does isn't easily visible to the public.

"A city administrator, city manager is not as much about doing, as much as making sure it gets done," he said about his job.

Eyewitness News called Strickland to find out what he does for his $91,000 salary.  He had a long list, including many of the large operations he's fully or partially in charge of.

"We have two retirement centers," said Strickland.  "The city owns our hospital so I'm somewhat responsible."  Later he added, "I go out for grants for airport work."

He's responsible for hiring and firing, for filling in when a department is missing key employees, for ensuring the safety of city workers, for making sure the proper street work is done at the right times, for taking complaints from residents and helping them get the services they need from the city, for finding federal grants to fund special projects, and many other jobs.
But is that worth $91,000?  That remains up to the residents of Herington.

1. Hoisington, 2010 population 2,706, limits salary to $58,656 to $82,524

2. Burlington, 2010 population 2,674, no city manager/administrator

3. Eureka, 2010 population 2,633, limits salary to $43,730 to $63,995, city administrator earns $45,000