AUGUSTA — A new three-year contract for City Manager William Bridgeo is up for a vote Thursday by city councilors.

The deal would provide Bridgeo with a 2 percent pay raise this year, which is consistent with raises given to both union and other non-union city employees this year, officials said. With the 2 percent raise in the first year of the new deal, Bridgeo’s salary would increase to about $117,000.

Councilors meet Thursday at 7 p.m. in council chambers at Augusta City Center.

Bridgeo’s current three-year contract expires next year, but provides for renewal if both he and the city agree after the first two years. If Bridgeo fulfills all three years of the new contract, he will have been Augusta’s manager for 20 years. He said he hopes to work for the city until his retirement.

Mayor David Rollins said Tuesday the city is “very fortunate to have the experience level, institutional knowledge and ability” of Bridgeo and Ralph St. Pierre, finance director and assistant city manager.

“We’re one of the most fortunate communities to be given the opportunity to keep somebody here in the middle of the pack of competitive wage level,” Rollins said. “Our discussion with him (about a new contract) was totally positive.”

Other current Maine city manager salaries, according to information compiled by Bridgeo, include Auburn, $99,000; Bangor, $128,000; Brunswick, $112,000; Lewiston, $119,500; Saco, $121,500; Scarborough, $119,500; South Portland, $123,100; and Waterville, $115,600.

“For my part, I am very satisfied with my position and with my working relationship with you,” Bridgeo wrote in a memo to councilors. “If it suits you, I would enjoy the opportunity to serve as Augusta’s city manager into the foreseeable future. Our city has many great things in the works, and I can think of nothing more personally fulfilling than to be able to continue to help nurture them along.”

Bridgeo said Tuesday the caliber of the city’s department heads and other employees make working in city government in Augusta satisfying.

The average tenure of a city manager in one job is about seven years, according to International City/County Management Association data from 2012.

Rollins said 20 years in one city is extremely unusual for a manager and a credit to Bridgeo and his work.

Contract provisions in which the city agrees to provide Bridgeo with a “late model, four-wheel-drive vehicle” for both business use and his exclusive and unrestricted personal use remain unchanged from the previous contract. Those terms specify that if Bridgeo uses the vehicle for personal reasons outside of Kennebec County, he is to reimburse the city at the current IRS mileage rate.

After the first year of the contract, Bridgeo would get the same cost-of-living raises other non-union city employees get, if any, in his contract’s second and third years.

Councilors also are scheduled to consider:

• banning parking on a small section of Water Street, where a traffic island was added recently at the intersection with Green Street, because drivers coming out of Green Street, which was recently changed from a one-way to a two-way street, have had a hard time seeing past parked cars to see traffic coming down Water Street;

• a Mayor’s Recognition of Excellence Award to Amanda Bartlett, executive director of Augusta Housing Authority, and the agency’s board of directors;

• approving 2 percent cost-of-living raises for non-union city employees;

• approving variances to city code to allow Kavanaugh Amusements to set up at city-owned Mill Park on July 2-4; and

• authorizing Bridgeo to sign a one-year lease, with the city receiving $16,900, with Augusta Housing Authority for 4,000 square feet of space in the 33 Union St. building where the Police Department is located.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @kedwardskj

Copy the Story Link