Title
Recommendation to Approve the First Amendment to the Employment Agreement for the City Manager, Effective July 13, 2025.
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City Council has completed its annual evaluation of City Manager Jennifer Ott. As part of that evaluation, in recognition of her performance, responsibilities and her comparable salaries to other nearby city managers, and to address concerns about compaction between her salary and the salary of the staff she supervises, City Council has indicated its intent to authorize an increase in the City Manager’s annual salary from $323,568 to $359,969 (an 11.25% increase), effective July 13, 2025. The recommendation is for City Council to approve this increase by an amendment to Ms. Ott’s Employment Agreement (Exhibit 2).
BACKGROUND
Ms. Ott has been the City Manager since 2023 and her salary has not been adjusted, other than by the same cost of living increases received by City of Alameda (City) department heads. Consistent with longstanding practice, the City maintains an individual employment agreement with its City Manager, which establishes the terms and conditions of employment for the City Manager. Ms. Ott’s current Employment Agreement is set forth in Exhibit 1. The Agreement may be amended as part of the annual evaluation process. With the assistance of a facilitator (Rick Haydon with the Municipal Resource Group), who coordinated the City Council’s collective evaluation of all City Council appointees, the City Council completed the City Manager’s annual evaluation during its March 4, 2025 City Council meeting. As part of that evaluation process, Mr. Haydon had conducted a compensation (salary and benefits) survey, using nearby city managers’ salaries and benefits for comparison purposes.
In March 2025, Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft appointed Councilmembers Boller and Daysog to an Ad Hoc Subcommittee (Subcommittee) to meet with Mr. Haydon to review and assess further the agencies used by the City for compensation survey purposes for the City Manager and review any updated survey information.
The Subcommittee met four times with Mr. Haydon, reviewed the agencies the City has historically used for comparative purposes. and assessed whether such agencies are comparable agencies for the Alameda City Manager. (Historically, the City has used the cities of Berkeley, Hayward, Livermore, Pleasanton, San Leandro and Walnut Creek when conducting compensation surveys for the three Council appointed officials. These cities are the same agencies the City uses for its rank-and-file employee groups.)
DISCUSSION
The Subcommittee reviewed the agencies the City has historically used in compensation surveys for the City Manager and saw no need to change these agencies. Mr. Haydon had used these agencies to conduct the compensation survey. Based on that survey, Ms. Ott is 10.25% behind the median of those surveyed cities and, of those cities, was the least paid city manager.
In addition to being the lowest paid city manager, even if the City Council provides the City Manager with a 10.25% equity adjustment, there would still be internal salary compaction issues between the salary of the City Manager and the salaries of some of her direct reports. To address this salary compaction issue, City Council also discussed providing the City Manager with an additional one percent salary increase, in addition to the aforementioned equity adjustment.
After deliberating where the City Manager’s compensation is in the market, and factoring in salary compaction issues, the City Council reached a tentative decision that would: Revise the City Manager’s salary up to the median, i.e., increasing her salary by 10.25%, and also provide her with an additional one percent salary increase to address the salary compaction issue, thereby increasing her overall salary by 11.25% ($323,568 to $359,969), effective July 13, 2025.
An amendment to the Ms. Ott’s Employment Agreement (Exhibit 2) sets forth these changes and it is being presented for Council’s approval. It authorizes an overall 11.25% increase in annual salary from $323,568 to $359,969, effective July 13, 2025. As before, the Agreement, as amended, continues to provide that Ms. Ott will also receive cost of living and other employment benefits that other executive management employees receive, including the general cost of living adjustment scheduled to be implemented on or around July 13, 2025.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Funds for this position are already included in the City Manager’s department budget. No additional funds are required in Fiscal Year 2025-26.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
This action is consistent with the Alameda Municipal Code.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
City Council’s approval of this amendment to the City Manager’s employment agreement is not a project and is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to section 15378(b)(4) of the CEQA guidelines, as it involves governmental fiscal activities which do not involve any commitment to any specific project which may result in a potentially significant physical impact on the environment.
CLIMATE IMPACTS
There are no identifiable climate impacts or climate action opportunities associated with the subject of this report.
RECOMMENDATION
Approve the First Amendment to the Employment Agreement for the City Manager, effective July 13, 2025.
Respectfully submitted,
Rick Haydon, Municipal Resource Group
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Ross McCarthy, Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. City Manager Employment Agreement
2. First Amendment to Employment Agreement