Athens City Administrator Pam Burton’s nearly 19-year-old contract with the city has become a point of contention for new members of the City Council.
At issue is a clause in the contract calling for Burton to receive six months salary, plus unused vacation and unused sick time, as a severance package when she leaves city employment. The contract provides for the package whether Burton is fired or decides to leave on her own.
That clause was triggered when, less than a week before this year’s city election in May, Burton announced she would be retiring effective Dec. 31.
In that election, Athens voters removed the incumbents by electing three new members to the council: Charles Elliott, Joe Whatley and Tres Winn.
Elliott and Whatley in particular have been critical of the contract, which is currently estimated to provide Burton with about $239,000 when she retires.
The debate continued this week with the council voting 3-2 to table an item “authorizing budget adjustment from prior year reserves” to pay for the severance package. According to city officials, there is about $2.6 million currently in that fund.
The item was tabled by Elliott, Whatley and Winn, who directed the staff to research whether Burton’s vacation and sick time should be paid at her current pay rate or the rate she was making when the time was accrued.
Whatley in particular wanted this question examined. He said if Burton’s vacation and sick time could be calculated using an earlier pay scale, the total payout of the severance package could be lowered. Winn agreed to finding out the answer, saying that since Burton wasn’t leaving until December there was time to make sure the severance was calculated correctly.
Elliott questioned the contract completely, saying he had talked to unnamed outside attorneys who told him the contract was not legal.
Both Winn and Councilman Monte Montgomery, however, reminded Elliott that the council was told by the city attorney and the Texas Municipal League that the contract was binding. Mayor Jerry Don Vaught also reminded the council that the contract was written by a different city attorney 19 years ago.
For a majority of the council it seemed the question is not whether the contract is legal, but rather what is the final price tag.
ABOUT THE CONTRACT
I obtained a copy of the contract and spoke with Trinity Valley Community College Vice President Dr. Jerry King, who was the mayor in 1995, and Burton herself.
I also obtained the minutes of a special meeting in June 1995 when the previous city administrator, Don Manning, left the city amid controversy. And I researched several stories in the Athens Daily Review and Cedar Creek Pilot from 1995.
In 1995, Athens council members were quoted in the newspaper saying that after two years in office, City Administrator Don Manning had become an issue with the public, although for unspecified reasons. A month after the 1995 election he submitted his resignation in what was apparently a deal worked out in an executive session.
Despite not having a contract, Manning gave his resignation in exchange for a severance package of eight months pay, health insurance for six months and the title to the city-owned Chevrolet he had been driving.
With the idea of uniting the city, the council looked inside instead of outside and then-City Secretary Pam Burton became the only candidate for the city administrator’s job.
She had already served as the interim city administrator once, before Manning was hired, and she did it again for three months after Manning left. As a native of Athens, she had been a city employee for 17 years and worked in every department in City Hall.
The council asked her to take the job. She said yes and her salary was set at $54,589 per year, but this time there was a contract.
One of Burton’s main concerns was reaching the 20-year mark to protect her retirement. She didn’t want to take the city administrator’s job only to see new council members come in and make a change.
In the Sept. 26, 1995, Athens Daily Review, the day after the council approved Burton as city administrator, Toni Garrard Clay wrote: “Burton said the main item to be negotiated in her contract involves a clause which would require placement into a newly-created position within the city administration should she and the council agree the city administrator’s position would be best suited for someone else.”
This was the genesis of Sections 11 and 12 of the contract, what some in the public have called the “no fire” clause.
Those sections say that if either the City Council or Burton herself determine “that it is no longer in the best interest of the City or Employee that she continue to perform the duties of City Administrator, the City Council upon the request of the Employee shall reinstate the Employee in the City in the position of Assistant City Administrator …”
Those sections also provide that, “should the Employee determine that it would no longer be of benefit to the City or or Employee, that Employee continue employment with the City in the position of Assistant City Administrator, the City Council agrees to pay Employee a lump sum cash payment equal to six months aggregate salary plus any accumulated sick leave and vacation time.”
No City Council has ever tried to renegotiate the contract.
The contract was written by then-City Attorney T.E. Williams after researching other city administrator contracts and salaries around the area, King said. At that time, the salary and contract were well within the norm, he said.
What wasn’t normal — and still isn’t — was having a city administrator for 19 years, who has a combined 36 years of service with the city.
During her time as city administrator, City Councils in 1998, 2002 and again in 2006 hired consultants to perform compensation studies to develop pay grades and compensation scales to stop high turnover at City Hall.
The changes as a result of those studies, plus raises that affected all employees pushed Burton’s salary to where it stands today at $148,190 a year.
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