Palo Alto city manager, attorney up for 6% raises

Palo Alto’s three council appointed officers – City Manager Ed Shikada, City Attorney Molly Stump and City Clerk Mahealani Ah Yun – are all set to receive raises next week, according to a report from the Human Resources Department.

The raises, which follow a period of evaluation by a City Council committee and its consultant, MRG, are set to be approved by the council on Dec. 9. Shikada and Stump will each receive a 6% raise, according to the report. Shikada’s raise would be evenly split between his annual salary, which would now be $422,803, and annual contributions to his retirement plan, which would go up to $30,815. Stump will see 1% added to her salary, bringing it to $365,266, and 5% added to her new annual retirement contribution, which would be $33,082, according to the proposed agreement.

Ah Yun, who was appointed city clerk in January of this year, would see her salary go up from $165,000 to $192,500, according to the city.

The three city officials are the only individuals who are directly appointed by the council. The city auditor had also historically been a council appointed officer before the council eliminated the office and contracted out the auditing function to the firm Baker Tilly.

Unlike most other employees, council appointed officers do not belong to any labor groups and are not eligible for regular cost-of-living adjustments. The salary increases for both Shikada and Stump are classified as merit-based and follow an evaluation process that included surveys, one-on-one interviews and closed session discussions, according to the report.

The salary hike for Ah Yun is based on both merit and on market-based adjustments to the median of the market, according to the city.

In addition to proposing the latest round of raises, the Council Appointed Officers Committee is also looking to refine the process for future compensation adjustments. Vice Mayor Ed Lauing, who chairs the committee, said that each of the three council appointed officers has been asked to identify a set of key goals and measurements for the coming year. The committee, which also includes council members Pat Burt and Lydia Kou, has had “very productive” conversations with each of the three council appointed officers to discuss key metrics on which each should be evaluated, Lauing said at the Dec. 2 council meeting.

“We’re deferring to those three to do that on the ones they want to emphasize this year as the first step,” Lauing said.

The raises will cost the city $73,800, which would be absorbed by the respective departments of the three council appointed officers, according to the Human Resources Department.

This story originally appeared in Palo Alto Weekly. Gennady Sheyner covers local and regional politics, housing, transportation and other topics for the Palo Alto Weekly, Palo Alto Online and their sister publications.