Belleville City Council gives $10,000 raise to city manager

After a lengthy review process to assess the work of city manager Jason Smith, on July 15 the Belleville City Council voted unanimously to give him a $10,000 raise in pay.
His salary went from $85,000 to $95,000. He started work last October.
Mayor Ken Voigt recommended the increase, saying the city wants to stay competitive and wants to keep Smith as city manager. He said with his present pay, Smith was paid $5,000 below one of the city’s department heads.
A convoluted method to assess his work had Mayor Voigt reading scores on 15 different performance categories. The scores assessed by each council member was kept secret, and the mayor read comments in each of the 15 areas by anonymous council members.
When the mayor added up the scores, he assessed Smith’s final score as “outstanding,” but council member Julie Kissel said the numbers actually added up to just below “outstanding,” in the “excellent” range.
Mayor Voigt pronounced the final score as “excellent, just shy of outstanding.”
City manager Smith said, “I absolutely love it here, have put in roots here. I would like to move the contract from three years to ‘evergreen’ and stay as long as you want me.”
Mayor Voigt said this should not be considered a merit increase, but to keep the city in competition with other communities. He referred to what the department heads get paid at Van Buren Township, next door.
Councilman Randy Priest made the motion to approve and said he considers it a merit increase.
“I’ve been here 46 years,” Voigt said, referring to his employment in the police department and activity in city government. “He’s so far the best we have,” he said, adding on second thought, Kerreen Conley and Bob Herron were very good.
Any contract changes will be considered when the contract is up for review.
In other business at Monday’s more than two-hour meeting, the council:
• After brief presentations by two proposals for the city’s refuse/recycling pickup, the board chose Stevens Disposal over Priority Waste, the firm presently doing the service. Priority Waste offered to match Stevens Disposal bid, which was lower, “dollar for dollar,” but the council did not take them up on that offer. Stevens, a family owned firm, will take over pickup when the transition is worked out. Ninety-five-gallon recycling bins were part of both companies’ proposals and the price is expected to be similar. There will be no recycling bin left unattended at the DPW yard because it can’t be monitored;
• Approved SLC Meter as the new water meter contractor at a cost of $612,683.85, as recommended by the city manager, despite not being the low bidder;
• Approved Westshore Services (Federal Signal) to provide a new tornado siren for the city at a cost of $27,900, the lower of two bids, as recommended by the city manager. It will be placed at the DPW yard and Van Buren Township Dispatch will push the button for the siren to sound. Both VBT and Sumpter Township have Westshore Service. The corner of the city that this siren doesn’t reach in Harbour Pointe subdivision, is being serviced by a Van Buren Township siren 1,000 feet away, city manager Smith said;
• Approved purchase of a Sany Tracked Excavator at a cost of $111,498.59, as recommended by the city manager who said the DPW needed something more nimble than the large excavator it now uses. DPW Director Tony Bollino said it will be used for digging graves. It has zero turn and can go down 19-20 feet. Councilman Jeremiah Beebe asked if the city should have bought this instead of a backhoe and Bollino said yes, but they’ll keep the big backhoe and use it for snow plowing in the winter;
• Approved tree trimming behind the city hall building and along the drive at the street to improve visibility while turning onto N. Liberty Street as proposed by Leffler’s Property Maintenance at a total cost of $1,800, as recommended by the city manager. The 14 stumps left at this location and others will be milled, Smith said;
• Approved the Giffels Webster quote received for the complete rewriting of the Master Plan, which was last rewritten in 2006. Since then it has occasionally been updated. By law it is supposed to be addressed every five years. The bid of $26,650 from Giffels Webster, the city’s current planning consultant, was the only quote received;
• Marked the retirement of police officer Bart DeVos and was introduced to two new police officers, Charlie Brooks and Michael Pearl;
• Approved accounts payable of $148,121.03 and departmental expenditures of more than $500: to Advanced Underground Inspection $2,443.75 on June 12 and $6,768.75 on June 26 for emergency camera work, cleaning, jetting and vac of storm sewer; to Core & Main, $969.78 for water and sewer repair on June 26; and to Amazon (Benchmark Tool & Supply), $1,087.14 for a laser level kit with tripod for grade work;
• Was advised city manager Smith has been appointed to SEMCOG’s Legislative Policy Platform Task Force;
• Heard city manager Smith remind the council he is going to be gone Tuesday through Friday this week because he is going to a convention in Marquette and will be moderating one session and presenting a session on Wednesday;
• Heard Mayor Voigt say that the city’s state representative and state senator announced that the city will be getting $750,000 for Horizon Park bank stabilization in October. It’s in the approved state budget, he said. Mayor Voigt said that maybe they can start construction this winter;
• Heard some thoughts on school safety from Ray Martin of Victoria Commons, who said he saw the recent incident with teens fighting in front of a house in his subdivision and Belleville police came with Van Buren Township police backup. He said last week there was a break in at Owen School, next to the subdivision, and Belleville police got the young lady in custody. He said he is working with the Fortis Group that is doing training to augment police departments and two students from Belleville he tutored are now in in the Youth Challenge Academy in Battle Creek. He mentioned active shooter events and said the community has to protect its children and the schools.