By Andy Sevilla.
Buda’s top administrator received a hefty pay hike this fiscal year but city officials say the $35,000 investment is worth it.
City Manager Kenneth Williams has been described as pleasing, competent, in demand and “a bit of a savior” by top ranking Buda officials. As a reward for his work, the Buda City Council unanimously approved a 30 percent pay jump for Williams this fiscal year according to officials and documents released through an open records request last week.
“The number one reason (for the salary increase) is that we’re very pleased with the work (City Manager) Kenneth (Williams) has done for the city, and his ability to hire competent people for the city,” Buda Mayor Todd Ruge said in a telephone interview.
| Williams |
Ruge said the council approved the pay hike earlier this year to ensure they didn’t lose him to other cities that could pay a bit more. Williams has been courted by other cities, like Galveston, where he was a finalist last year, Ruge said.
The increased pay propelled William’s salary to $150,000, up from the $115,000 he received last fiscal year. By comparison, Kyle City Manager Lanny Lambert and San Marcos City Manager Jim Nuse will earn $126,436 and $180,939 this year, respectively. Kyle has three-times the residents Buda boasts and San Marcos’ population is five-times bigger.
Kyle and San Marcos have, for years, been experiencing the growing pains expanding communities often face, such as exploding development, congestive traffic and infrastructure demands.
If population trends remain, Buda is headed that way. Already, the city has a debt of about $27 million and was forced to increase property taxes by more than two cents, or 29.79 cents per $100 of property valuation, to cover road repairs in Bonita Vista and build the Westside Well, which will expand groundwater sources for the thirsty town.
“Under (William’s) leadership, we’re not facing a lot of the same challenges that other cities are, and it’s because of his leadership, it’s because we’ve been very conservative with our tax rate and our spending,” Ruge said. “In my mind, it’s a credit to him that we are in such good fiscal shape.”
And although Buda residents will have to pay a little bit more this year for property taxes, Ruge said the council made a “wise investment” in upping William’s salary.
“We’re just so happy with his work and we want to let him know that we want him to stay here,” Ruge said. “We don’t want to lose a key component, like Kenneth, because of money.”
And that message was well received. “It feels good to know that your good efforts are appreciated,” Williams said. “I work hard. I put in a lot of work for the city.”
His management style and putting together a competent team to handle city business is what Williams described as his biggest achievement last fiscal year.
Williams said part of the reasoning behind his higher wage intake is that results of a salary survey showed Buda employee salaries were lagging behind cities with which they compete. The study examined salaries in Kyle, San Marcos, Seguin, New Braunfels and Pflugerville. Based on the results, all employees received pay raises of at least three-percent. The highest pay jump – Williams’ salary – was 30 percent.
Lambert received less than a two-percent increase for Kyle’s current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. Nuse’s salary remained flat, though he is leaving his post in San Marcos on Jan. 2.
“We’ve lost a lot of employees and directors to bigger cities, so we wanted to get salaries to a competitive level” and not serve as a training ground, Williams said. Within this year, Buda’s city secretary left for Bulverde and the parks director relocated to Seguin. Both positions have since been filled.
Ruge said the salary survey revealed that top administrators’ pay was “vastly below, not only local averages, but state averages.”
Williams said it is necessary for Buda wages to remain competitive, due to the fact that it is more expensive to lose employees and have to recruit and train their replacements.
Of the cities surveyed, Williams said the average salary for a city manager was $159,000.
“I think that the city is being proactive in retaining competent staff,” he said.
And having the right staff on board is crucial right now, Ruge said, as the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) has named Buda the fastest-growing city within their service area for the past two years, and is on track to receive that designation for a third straight year. CAMPO disseminates federal transportation dollars for mobility projects in its six-county region in Central Texas.
In Depth: For an analysis and comparison of the top 25 earners in Buda, Kyle and San Marcos read our salary story on page 1D.
