Outraged councilmen can't stop hireCity manager contract will likely be OK'd at next meeting

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DeKALB - Outraged opponents of giving city manager nominee Mark Biernacki a lucrative, first-of-its-kind pay package were unable on Monday to do anything more than delay the inevitable, as Mayor Greg Sparrow and his allies quietly approved the hire by a one-vote margin. Measures to increase the salary range for top city administrators and to override a state law that would limit Biernacki's contract to no longer than the term of the current mayor were passed by 4-3 votes on a preliminary basis only. They will come back to the council for a final approval Jan. 26 because there were not enough votes to waive a second reading of the ordinances. The changes mean Biernacki, a former city of DeKalb community development director, would start with a salary of $122,120, or the highest possible on the city's 25-grade pay scale. The amount represents a $10,000 raise over what former City Manager Jim Connors was making. The council, again by one vote, also gave the initial OK to an employment contract with Biernacki that calls for a severance package worth a year's salary and benefits if lawmakers decide to fire him before July 1, 2006. "To say the least, I'm outraged by this," said Alderman Kris Povlsen, 2nd Ward, who voted against the hire. "It's not necessary. We had many qualified candidates." Povlsen said that along with Biernacki in the top tier of final candidates for the job were current city managers with experience ranging from 10 to 28 years and salaries of between $79,000 and $101,000. Alderman Steve Kapitan, 3rd Ward, said almost all of these candidates had agreed to a salary lower than what Biernacki, who has never served as a city manager, demanded. Alderman Pat Conboy, 5th Ward, called the provision for a one-year severance package "blackmail" because it would put a future council in the position of taking a big financial hit if it wanted to get rid of Biernacki in the next two and a half years. Aldermen who voted for Biernacki's hire had little to say during Monday's council meeting about why they were doing so. Mike Knowlton, 4th Ward, said that among the four committees - two made up of city staff, one of all of the council members and one of citizens - that reviewed applications for the position, all pointed to Biernacki as a top candidate. He also said the council had rejected a request from Biernacki for an even more lucrative contract. Biernacki declined to comment on whether he had asked for more money. Dave Baker, 6th Ward, noted that Biernacki's contract would revert to a more standard city manager contract after July 1, 2006, when firing him would commit the city to paying a severance package worth six months' salary. Despite the strong opposition to the pay package from three aldermen, there were few members of the public who voiced similar sentiments Monday. Former Mayor Bessie Chronopoulos, who was on the council when Connors was hired, and former DeKalb Plan Commission member Herb Rubin, whom Sparrow chose not to reappoint, were exceptions. Chronopoulos said that "somehow it does not seem proper to revamp an entire employment policy to accommodate one person." Rubin said it was poor form to hire a city manager, responsible for the day-to-day running of the city, on a split vote, in which "politics displaces administration." Monday's 4-3 votes followed the pattern seen on other controversial city issues, with council veterans and former Chronopoulos supporters Conboy, Kapitan and Povlsen lining up against first-termers Knowlton, Baker, James Barr, 7th Ward, and Karega Harris, 1st Ward. Earlier in the meeting, Povlsen pointed to the city's decision last year to limit pay increases for top city management and increase the local sales tax as ways to cope with a nearly $1 million budget deficit. In light of these actions, Biernacki's pay package was "a slap in the face to the community and to our current staff," he said. After the meeting, Biernacki said he was not worried that other nonunion administrative staff would resent his pay and perks, nor that he would have difficulty working with those council members who opposed his hire. "I'm certain that their confidence in me as a city manager will grow quickly," he said of the latter group. He also called his contract "fairly well standard" according to guidelines set by the International City/County Management Association, and he predicted morale problems among his co-workers "will not be present." Biernacki is the current community development manager for Elgin and worked for DeKalb for most of the 1990s. Chris Rickert can be reached at crickert@ pulitzer.net.