Marine City officials advertising $60K-$80K for next manager. How does that compare to other local administrators?

Marine City officials are moving forward in finding a replacement for outgoing City Manager Elaine Leven.

At a special meeting Thursday, city commissioners agreed to appoint Mike Itrich, public works superintendent, as interim manager. They also approved placing an advertisement for the opening and setting up a subcommittee to aid in the search.

But it’s still unclear what compensation package the municipality will be able to offer Leven’s successor. After the administrator put in her 30-day notice May 27, Mayor Cheryl Vercammen said she hoped the commission would be able to address offering higher pay to help attract candidates, citing Leven’s wages as the lowest for the position in St. Clair County.

A review of local municipal administrator wages shows she may be right — at least, in part.

When asked about Marine City advertising a $60,000-$80,000 range for the position, Vercammen said, “Nothing is set in stone,” and that their search subcommittee could revisit the issue “if we’re not getting quality applicants and their feedback is that they need more compensation.”

Leven arrived in Marine City in late 2015.

At the time, she started with yearly compensation of $65,000, or about $33,000 less than her predecessor John Gabor. Her salary was proposed at $68,000 for the next 2021-22 fiscal year.

Leven’s salary in Fraser, where she'll also be the city's first female manager, according to the Macomb Daily, will be $120,000.

“We need to get with the times. The only reason we’re losing Elaine is because of compensation,” Vercammen said Friday. “We’ll know the answer to that when we start getting applicants, right? If nobody applies for the job, then that’s our answer.”

Itrich, Police Chief Jim Heaslip, City Clerk Kris Baxter, Vercammen and Commissioner Lisa Hendrick, were named to the subcommittee. Leven will serve as an alternate until her departure.

The position will be advertised through June 23, and the subcommittee will also address adjusting compensation to accommodate Itrich’s interim role.

What do city managers make in St. Clair County?

Like other city managers, Leven was subject to an annual review by elected officials in Marine City.

However, how often — and by how much — their wages are adjusted depends on the community, its size and the length of the administrator’s tenure.

Port Huron City Manager James Freed received a 7% pay increase at the end of May after officials said a wage study among comparably sized communities showed his compensation didn’t meet the average.

Usually, Freed receives step increases that correspond with those of other non-unionized city employees. As of last year, his salary was more than $139,000. It’s $149,415 annually after the increase.

The Port Huron official started his job in 2014 with a $110,000 salary.

In contrast to Port Huron, which has a population of roughly 29,000, Yale City Manager John Osborn’s salary is $68,463, plus $2,500 for being assistant zoning administrator.

Yale’s population is about 2,000.

Osborn has been with the city since 1989, except for a period in 1994. He said he does get regular pay increases similar to other employees and after a review from council officials.

“(There were a) couple years when things were really bad. Nobody got any kind of increases,” he said. “Usually, there’s been some type of an increase on an annual basis.”

In Algonac, where there are roughly 4,000 residents, City Manager Denice Gerstenberg said her current salary is $77,760 plus benefits. Her original contract included $74,000 a year when she began in 2017. Her predecessor’s last salary had been $79,200.

St. Clair Superintendent Warren Rothe began his job in late 2019 at about $68,000. He currently makes $70,040.

“I received a 3% raise at my one-year review,” he said.

At a year and a half, Rothe is St. Clair County’s youngest and newest municipal administrator. To the north is a long-time municipal employee in Marysville. The cities populations are about 5,300 and 9,700, respectively.

Marysville City Manager Randy Fernandez said his salary was about $118,000. Previously a city employee in Port Huron for 27 years, he transitioned to Marysville in 2011 as the city’s community development director and assistant city manager.

He transitioned to full manager in early 2014, replacing Jason Hami.

The difficulty in comparing wages?

Fernandez said his salary was average in compensation for cities of Marysville’s size. He pointed to a Michigan Municipal League study last year.

“The upper end of comparable cities of eight to 15 (thousand) was 125-130K,” he said. “I just discussed that with my council at my last review in October.”

Matt Bach, MML communications director, said that survey of wages wasn’t accessible to the public as it was meant for members evaluating compensation.

But he cautioned that it can be “hard to come up with apples to apples” because wages can be  varied based on the size of the communities and other factors.

Port Huron utilized population size, as well as budget total and the number of employees in its comparison before Freed’s latest wage adjustment. Mayor Pauline Repp, who's president of the Michigan Association of Mayors, and other officials have said keeping and attracting municipal managers was proving increasingly difficult.

Repp said compensation may be part of it and "being willing to pay a little bit more." She added it could also depend on the kind of council a manager reports to if they feel their job is "not always secure" or whether they can stand scrutiny that comes with a public position.

“The bottom line is a person of that caliber — basically, they’re like a CEO of a city — can certainly make more money in the private sector," Repp said. "And I don’t’ think you’re seeing as many people as you used to going into the public sector."

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.