Letter to the Editor: More question about City Manager's pay raise

(This Letter to the Editor has been submitted by Laurie Worcester)

"I understand that job evaluations are confidential, but job descriptions are not. When did the Decorah City Manager actually have the last formal job evaluation?   The question remains:   What did the city manager do to exceed job description requirements to be given such a significant salary increase?

Having taken a stats class, I know statistics can be skewed to reflect what the person wants others to see.  If the City Council is looking to make comparisons between Decorah employees and employees of other cities, it will be a daunting task that will leave many questions unanswered.  It is close to impossible to do comparisons.  Although the job descriptions may look the same, the cities are not the same.  The projects are not the same.  The methods of doing things are different.  The demographics of the communities are not the same:  Is the city a bedroom community to a metro area?  What is the median age of the people residing within the community?    What is the median household income?  What are the projects within the community that need to be addressed? What percentage of the community is single family?    In terms of percentages, what is the cost of living increase for the community?  The list of comparison questions is unending.    

Significant increases in salary should occur, but the increases should be based on accomplishments and work ethic.  Salary increases should not necessarily  be based on comparison studies. For example, a city worker could be working far harder than a supervisor. Yet, if comparison studies are used, the supervisor might be given the significant increase over the city worker. Because statistics can be written  to obtain the results that are wanted, comparison studies should not be used.  All workers deserve a good wage if they are doing their jobs."