Shaking it up in city: Controversial raise, ordinance go through

Dec. 15—ASHLAND — One could say it was a marathon meeting, but people have completed 26.2 miles faster than the duration of Thursday's Ashland city commission noon gathering.

Twenty-three speakers approached the podium during public participation — with only a local pastor releasing from the pressure points of the day as he took a minute to extend invitations to his church this weekend for a Christmas service.

The hot topics in front of an overflow crowd in the chambers were an ordinance pertaining to the line of authority within the city, a raise for the city manager and Kentucky People's Union's push to make the landlord registry public (addressed in a separate story).

By 2:59 p.m. — 48 seconds short of three hours — both the controversial ordinance and pay raise had passed, just as it did on first reading in mid-November.

The raise

For six and a half years, City Manager Mike Graese had not received a raise. Now, thanks a 3-2 vote on second reading, he is set to collect $33,000 more per year upon the extension of his contract past Jan. 31, 2024.

Commissioners Amanda Clark and Josh Blanton voted yes. Mayor Matt Perkins followed suit. Commissioners Marty Gute and Cheryl Spriggs were against it.

Graese will now bring in $163,000. Total compensation will be $233,897.20 when factoring in 457/IRA contribution and benefits.

Blanton said what most don't know is Graese turned down a potential raise during contract negotiations in 2020 because a number of city employees were furloughed due to the pandemic, and he didn't feel it was right.

Blanton said this salary jump will place Graese in the 75% mark of city manager salary range among 13 Class 2 cities in Kentucky.

"Anybody who has any interaction with Mr. Graese, if you don't think he's a (75th-percentile) city manager, talk to him a little bit more, please," Blanton said.

Baker Tilly — an advisory, tax and assurance firm based in Charleston, West Virginia — conducted an analysis on city salaries not long ago, and it "put everybody where they needed to be (salary-wise)," Blanton said.

When the commission voted all of that through, based on that study, it bumped salaries by a total of $1.15 million.

"We did that, and we could afford to do that, and it was deserved," Blanton said. "I point that out to say, you see a $33,000 raise — if I were a citizen, I'd be concerned, too; I'd say, 'what's going on here?' I'm trying to provide the context from what we see. ... The man hasn't received a raise since he was hired, six and a half years ago."

A few citizens brought up city manager salary comparisons by population. For instance, Covington — with a population of 41,000 (nearly double Ashland's head count) — has a city manager bringing in $149,000.

However, Blanton said that doesn't provide the clearest context, either, as responsibilities and skills must be weighed, too. The commissioner said the city managers of many of the cities being used in comparison are not responsible for as much as Graese is, including public utilities.

Spriggs contended that Ashland has department heads who shoulder those responsibilities, and that this raise was simply too much. She's also concerned because — based on the aforementioned study — Graese will be eligible for a raise ever year until he hits $178,000.

"Here's the thing — $2 million has been added to the payroll in new positions in the city since Mr. Graese came," Spriggs said. "My concern — and I'm representing the taxpayers; we're not a business — is we've got two ways to raise money. We're going to tax you so we can pay our bills or we're going to raise the water rates. That's it.

"Now, if we had a ton of money and big businesses here," she continued, "maybe that's doable. But I worry about our fiscal situation."

Spriggs then suggested the finance department assemble a plan of where the city will fiscally stand in five years — which Perkins acknowledged was reasonable and likely feasible.

Gute joined Spriggs in opposition, and during his prepared statement suggested that perhaps a 10% raise would be more reasonable.

"See, that's a compromise," Gute said.

Spriggs said she'd like for Graese to stay in the position, but "saying that I want him to stay is not the justification for a $33,000 raise."

Gute and Spriggs also expressed leeriness toward Graese's previous request to the commission that it consider the hiring of a deputy city manager within the next 12 months. When Gute asked the mayor and commissioners if they would do so, Perkins reminded Gute that it was not currently on the agenda but that it is something he'd be willing to "look into."

The ordinance

Perkins, Clark and Blanton all voted yes on the second reading of an ordinance that Spriggs and Gute are adamantly against.

Under the ordinance, individual elected officials are forbidden to give orders or directives to city employees or officers unless acting through formally adopted ordinances, municipal orders or resolutions of the commission. Essentially, as previously reported by The Daily Independent, they can't interfere with the managerial function of the city manager.

Section 2 specifically states nothing in the ordinance shall be interpreted to prohibit conversations of a personal or social nature between the mayor and city commissioners and city workers.

Any elected official who violates any Section 1 provisions shall be "subject to public censure upon a majority vote of commission members present and voting finding a violation of Section 1 upon a complaint brought by the mayor or any commission member," according to the ordinance.

Spriggs and Gute view the ordinance as an effort to muzzle the elected officials when it comes to interactions with city employees.

Spriggs made a motion to table it "due to the fact I've sent it to the state attorney general for opinion."

Gute seconded, but no one else was in favor, so it failed.

Gute said the ordinance is "almost word for word what was in the books in 1956 until the General Assembly did away with it. It was bad legislation then as it is now."

Graese responded that he explained to Gute during an executive session in August that "something had to be put in place to limit day-to-day interaction with the staff."

In November, Gute asked if Graese would resign if this didn't pass. He acknowledged yes, he would, because he needs conditions implemented to manage the city effectively.

Gute said he — and to his knowledge, no other commissioner — talked behind Graese's back to employees when they shouldn't have. Gute called the ordinance "unenforceable."

"And that hinges on you staying?" Gute said. "That just blows my mind. ... Why would you leave this great job with great support over this frivolous, unenforceable, watered-down ordinance? It's just crazy.

"This is nothing but divisive in nature," Gute said. "In eight terms, I've been privileged to serve as city commissioner with five different city managers. There was only one other time that a city manager chose to try to operate the city in such a divisive atmosphere, and that did not turn out well for the city, commission or city manager."

Gute said it was absurd for the commission to have to get permission from the city manager — "who works for the board (of commissioners), not the reverse" — in order to communicate with employees on city matters.

Spriggs agreed, and alluded to a comment previously made by Visit AKY Tourism Director Brandy Clark, who called Graese "the conductor of the train" in Ashland.

"In case anybody out there forgets, the conductor of the train is the commission," Spriggs said. "Everything the city manager does comes through ordinances by KRS law. We pass all the ordinances, give all the money and everything else. He's our employee, OK?"

Spriggs said she likes Graese and that he's out in the community, "but the way this is done is dirty and dark. I don't like it, and I'm very vocal about it."

Spriggs asked if Graese needs this ordinance to be able to run the city, does that mean he hasn't been able to do so in the last six and a half years?

"I could run the city more effectively if I didn't have elected officials providing direct directives," Graese said. "This is nothing about communications. We have an existing ordinance that was passed well before I got here that states any employee in the city can talk to an elected official. That stands. This ordinance doesn't change that. This ordinance specifically directs that there's not directives given to employees. It does not say conversations can't happen.

"If (Commissioner Gute) has a question for Finance, knock himself out. If he's got a question for Legal, knock himself out," Graese spoke to a hypothetical situation.

Spriggs called it a dangerous document because of how it may be interpreted. "We have to be careful planning for the future."

"... You said you need command and control; that's a military term," Spriggs said, referring to 33-year Army veteran Col. Graese's vernacular. "... Could you give me an example with Commissioner being Person A and Employee being Person B of a violation of this?"

After some back-and-forth, Graese said, "If the police department is directed to go to a specific location to take care of something ... if somebody tells a staff (member), 'Hey, don't worry, I'll take care of that. I'll have the parks department do that for you,' that's a directive, and that causes confusion with the staff."

Clearly frustrated with Spriggs' and Gute's stance, Amanda Clark said there was nothing in the ordinance that varies from KRS literature.

"By passing it, we are saying we identify, we accept and we are willing to abide by that KRS, which we should do anyway but we haven't been," Clark said. "So I'm in support of it and it still has my vote."

"The only thing that ordinance addresses is directives to city staff," Blanton said.

Perkins allowed all four commissioners to comment but elected to let his vote in favor of the ordinance serve as his statement.

The public

Prior to the vote, some citizens publicly pleaded with Clark, Blanton and Perkins to sway their decision.

Two Ashland women went as far as knocking on doors of neighbors of Blanton and Clark, conducting an informal survey on how they viewed the raise and the ordinance. They received responses from seven of Blanton's neighbors. Five of them opposed granting the 25% raise. Four of Clark's neighbors "expressed outrage," according to the women, about the pay raise.

David Williams, an avid follower of city matters and former commission candidate, offered that perhaps "Mr. Graese has outgrown Ashland and may need to move to a bigger city. ... He's well-qualified, I'm not disputing this. But our city cannot afford to pay this."

Williams, who referred to himself as a "guy who's retired that sits on his couch and does research," said Ashland's population is trending to dip below 20,000 citizens in the next six to eight years.

Blanton later said he refuses to believe that, and thinks it will trend upward soon.

Isabel Hensley, Victor Wilson, Dr. Matt Shamblin, Brandy Clark, Kim Jenkins, Diamond Lewis, Courtney Hensley, Carly Thomas and Chase Stewart are proponents of Graese's raise.

Shamblin — Rose Hill Baptist's pastor who is from the Charleston area and is a studious observer of Appalachia — said there's a "vacuum of leadership" throughout many Appalachian towns, but not here in Ashland.

"Leadership costs money," he said. He said Ashland's at a turning point and, with Graese at the helm, it will be in position to continue to excel.

After giving a year-in-review update from Visit AKY, Clark said if Graese submitted his resignation, she would follow suit.

"My husband (John Clark) and I support the city manager," Clark said. "If he were removed, it would be a detrimental end. ... and someone else will need to take my place as director of tourism in Ashland."

Jenkins, the director of the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center, said "it's important to pay for good leadership."

"I fully support Mike Graese," she said. "He is worth it."

Stewart, who appeared to be quite the math whiz, said factoring in cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) — which Graese hasn't received during his stint — and the absence of a regular raise to this point, that "everything kind of supports his pay raise. ... I think he deserves it."

Roger Hall, an attorney and Boyd County Master Commissioner, said he is "troubled by the ordinance" regarding the line of authority.

Hall said if it is interpreted that anyone disobeys the ordinance, the "public censure" part will "not be pretty."

Hall said the whistleblower statute in Kentucky is "pretty clear."

"Maybe I'm the only one that sees a possibility of this thing putting an employee in the middle of being a whistleblower, and what this ordinance is going to do," Hall said. "This bothers me because when we walk out of here today, this thing's going to be on the books. You all are going to have to be sure that you don't say anything in the presence of anybody or you could be attacked publicly and censured."

Censure means to "fault or reprimand."

Josh Bader, whose late father was a City of Ashland employee, said he does not think the ordinance is "prudent" and that it "blurs the separation of powers."

Mary Gunderson wondered who would make the decision whether public humiliation is suitable for any violation of the ordinance.

Susan Fleming expressed concern about the ordinance, too, but when she asked Graese directly about it, he answered from the bench: "It only limits directives to the staff, not communication."

Fleming, Williams, Donita Cox and Leigh Holderness all spoke in opposition to the city manager's pay raise.

The apology

During commissioners' comments, just a few minutes into the meeting, Spriggs asked for an apology from City Attorney Jim Moore. Moore, during November's meeting, asked Spriggs if she knew what the word "negotiation" means.

"(Moore) aggressively and angrily interrupted and insulted me," Spriggs said. "I along with others have never witnessed such maltreatment and disrespect as a city commissioner, so I'm calling for a public apology today from Jim Moore."

"Commissioner, I will say this to you, to the extent that I used sarcasm, I don't think that was appropriate, I do apologize for that," Moore said. "To the extent that I was giving a legal opinion on the letter you brought up on whether or not it was viewed as a resignation, I do not apologize for that because that's my job.

" ... I think that I used a tone that was not appropriate."

"I appreciate your acknowledgement of that as well as making that apology public today," Perkins said.

(606) 326-2664 — asnyder@dailyindependent.com