McDonnell
Council members like her
but not the money
POUGHKEEPSIE – Mayor Robert Rolison’s recommendation for
a new POughkeepsie city administrator was approved by the common council
with no dissent, but, the council rejected a negotiated salary that is
higher than what was advertised for the position.
Deborah McDonnell, who has been city administrator in Fairborn, Ohio for the last 10 years, was confirmed and generally praised, on a 7-0-1 vote with Randal Johnson abstaining because of the salary.
Money was the point of extended debate.
The position had been advertised at $125,000. During Tuesday night’s council meeting, however, the resolution would have set the starting salary at $140,000, not including benefits.
“If you watch the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves,” argued Chairman Christopher Petsas, who compared the process to negotiating with a car dealer to get a better price, which led to a somewhat heated exchange with the mayor.
“I think at the end of the day, this may be a barter of let’s come back with a more realistic number that the city can afford,” Petsas said. Rolison countered: “Mr. Chairman, to be fair, we had those discussions.”
Rolison appeared to argue that backing off from the $140,000 could be a deal breaker.
“We have a extremely qualified candidate; a candidate that to come to a city of this size, with the budget that we have, with the fiscal challenges, administrative challenges, operational challenges that we have without paying a requisite salary, I think, makes it much more difficult, probably now, to have Ms McDonnell to accept this position,” Rolison said.
The mayor had earlier noted that the $15,000 differential amounted to 0.017 percent of this year’s budget.
That wasn’t enough to swing the vote, which failed, four in favor and three opposed, with Randal Johnson again abstaining. Five votes are needed for approval.
