One of New Hampshire’s highest paid municipal employees got a raise on Monday night, though not without some dissent

“If you look at the pay scale for any of the jobs with the city, honestly, it’s pretty modest,” said Concord City Councilor Kris Schultz. “I feel like this amount is more than what would be considered a cost of living adjustment.”

The Concord City Council ultimately approved a $6,500 raise for City Manager Tom Aspell, bringing his total annual compensation to nearly $250,000. While his performance was unanimously endorsed, some councilors didn’t back the pay increase and said they wanted a more public and thorough evaluation process.

Councilor Michele Horne said it “seems excessive” when the city manager makes three times the typical taxpayer.

While she believes Aspell works hard for Concord, the current review process is arbitrary, relying largely on councilors’ personal opinions, she said in an interview Tuesday.

“It’s just 15 people sitting around a table saying ‘does he pass or fail?’” she said. “Evaluations I’ve had to give a fifteen-year-old cashier were more stringent,” she continued.

Aspell has been the city manager for 20 years, and has been working for the city for 27. He is entering the third year of a five-year contract, set to expire in 2028, but he is evaluated annually by the council. In comments after the meeting, Aspell said he understood the concerns of Schultz, and felt her points were “fair.”

To Councilor Jennifer Kretovic, Aspell’s annual raise was earned.

“A 27-year veteran does deserve a a better compensation than someone who is just starting out,” she said. “The motion really underscores our appreciation for the city manager and the ongoing commitment to his leadership and it ensures that his compensation remains fair but also equitable within the broader context of our municipal workforce.”

By comparison, Chris Sununu was paid $163,510 by the state during his final year as governor, according to records available at TransparentNH.

The 3% pay increase Aspell received was proportionally lower than what was offered to most other city employees, Kretovic noted.

Contracts negotiated and approved over the last year pegged wage increases for most city employees at four and five percent. Under Aspell’s contract, his raise is to be set by the council at between two and five percent annually. He receives seven weeks of paid leave per year; and he can now accrue an additional 20 days, or 90 days off total, of that time if he doesn’t use it.

Still the raw amount of the increase stood out to councilors. While his pay makes him one of the highest paid municipal employees in the state, he’ not the highest. His counterpart in Dover, Michael Joyal, who has served a similar length of time in a city with about 10,000 fewer residents than Concord, made nearly $260,000 last year.

Per city charter, the council gives a boilerplate “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory” rating after Aspell’s annual evaluation. Monday night’s satisfactory review came as no surprise: Councilors often voice trust in Aspell and his tenure.

The manager is the only employee whom city councilors directly oversee. He is evaluated in non-public session by both a committee and later the full council, and the minutes from those meetings are sealed.

The city of Concord has denied Right to Know requests from the Monitor to make public his evaluation or councilors’ discussion of his performance.

City Councilor Stacey Browne thinks the process needs reshaping – and some sunlight.

“I would like the Manager’s Review Committee to relook at, to examine the evaluation process so that there is something that we can show to the public,” she said Monday night. “Because there isn’t anything for them to see.”

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.