Creswell City Administrator – Michelle Amberg
City Council approved a pay raise for Creswell City Administrator Michelle Amberg at their April regularly scheduled meeting. Administrator Amberg’s annual salary was $111,383.34. In April, council approved increasing Amberg’s salary to include an annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) of 2.75 percent, in the amount of $3,063.94 and a four-percent merit increase of $4,455.33, making Amberg’s 2018-19 salary $118,901.71.
Amberg received her evaluation from city council in March and received a favorable rating. The Finance and Administration Committee (FAC) then met to negotiate salary and benefits for the next fiscal year and brought their recommendation to the March work session for discussion, directing staff to place the item on the agenda for final decision in April.
Administrator Amberg was hired in February 2014. During her first year with the City a salary study was performed. Administrator Amberg’s salary was adjusted to be in alignment with the results of the survey on July 1, 2015. Additionally, Administrator Amberg received a COLA and a three-percent increase on July 1, 2016 and a four-percent merit and 2.3-percent cola increase on July 1, 2017.
No changes were proposed to Administrator Amberg’s annual car allowance of $1,800 ($150 per month) or to her annual cell phone allowance of $960 ($80 per month).
Retirement is provided through Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) – Oregon Public Service Retirement Plan (OPSRP). The City pays the six percent employee’s contribution, and no change was proposed on this item.
Vacation and sick leaves are accumulated at the rates as set out in Creswell’s Employee Handbook. The Committee also requested that Amberg receive eight hours of management leave per month, with a cap of 96 total hours.
At the April 23 work session, Councilor and AFC Chair Gary Mounce presented council with the policy and forms that the AFC (comprised of councilors Amy Knudsen and Martha McReynolds Jr.) have been working on.
After going through this year’s evaluation process, AFC relayed that they felt many of the questions on the evaluation were not applicable or answerable by council. The new policy reflects the administrator’s goals and progress; other goals and accomplishments; additional considerations; performance summary; recommendations; and a merit increase recommendation.
The next step will be to present the evaluation policy to council for adoption in May.
