ESCANABA — Escanaba City Manager Patrick Jordan has two weeks to determine if he will accept a new contract presented at Thursday night’s regular city council meeting or if he will cease to be the city manager.
“I have no intention of agreeing to any changes in my contract. If you would like to end my contract, follow the contract, adhere to the severance clause in my contract — you can do that with four votes of this council — and then we can negotiate a new contract if you’d like to keep me here,” Jordan told the council Thursday.
The draft of the contract slated to be discussed at Thursday’s meeting did not include a number of figures related to salary and compensation. However, in the interest of having a complete contract to discuss, the two-person contract committee composed of Mayor Mark Ammel and Council Member Ron Beauchamp briefly met during a five minute recess and filled in the blanks. The council then discussed the completed contract when the meeting reconvened in open session.
The changes to the contact from Jordan’s existing agreement with the city are substantial. Under the proposed contract, Jordan’s salary would be slashed to $100,000 annually, down from the $148,975 currently budgeted for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.
He will also be offered 30 days of paid time off, up to six months of disability leave, and the same retirement program match offered to other non-union employees in the city — a percentage that was unavailable Thursday.
Advocating for the changes was Beauchamp, who stated he felt Jordan’s current contract was “excessive.” Beauchamp also argued that Jordan had not made any progress to correct issues the council identified during his more recent performance review.
Jordan repeatedly stated he would not accept any modifications to his existing contract, but when pressed by the council Jordan said he had no intentions of resigning.
He also said he felt it was wrong to pay for an attorney to negotiate the issue, despite it being made apparent he had already hired legal representation.
“I don’t see any reason for me to have to pay for an attorney to do something that is completely out of the ordinary for a city manager city council form of relationship. I stated at the beginning of the meeting and I stated when you made the motion to go out and hire an attorney that I had no intention of making any changes and it takes two parties to make changes to a contract,” he said.
Ammel and Beauchamp had hired Luis Avila, a labor and employment attorney from Varnum, LLP of Grand Rapids, to assist with the contract. While no issues had been raised about the committee hiring independent council previously, Jordan argued that it was specifically stated in the city’s charter that only the city manager could hire an attorney.
It was also raised during the meeting that Avila may have a conflict of interest, as Varnum is also representing the Terrace Bay Hotel in their bid to buy a portion of the site of the former Delta County Jail to develop a hotel. No final determination was made on whether or not a conflict existed, but the city’s primary attorney, Lisa Vogler — who had previously recused herself from the contract negotiation — indicated it would be standard procedure for the two Varnum attorney’s to have performed a conflict of interest check prior to the committee’s hiring of Avila.
Vogler was unsure if a conflict existed and, having previously recused herself, indicated that discussion would need to be between the Varnum attorneys and Jordan’s own legal counsel.
With the final numbers in place, the council voted to approve the document in a split vote. Voting against the contract were council members Todd Flath and Karen Moore. Flath indicated he thought Jordan’s salary should remain unchanged. Moore indicated she didn’t feel it was appropriate to adjust Jordan’s contract at all.
The contract now moves to Jordan, who had previously been given the incomplete draft and is assumed to be familiar with the majority of the contract’s terms. Because of Jordan’s prior knowledge of the document, the council indicated Jordan will have until the next city council meeting — which is scheduled for Oct. 20 — to determine if he will accept the proposal.
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City manager has two weeks to accept contract or leave - Escanaba Daily Press
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