The City Council after midnight on Wednesday voted to approve Tom Bakaly as the new city manager. Mayor Pro Tem Kit Bobko and Council member Mike DiVirgilio said his contract was too lucrative.
Bakaly, 48, a Southern California native and current city manager of Park City, Utah, will make $185,000 in base salary when he begins working Sept. 4. But the total cost of his contract is about $230,000, including medical and retirement benefits, DiVirgilio said.
“I think without question Tom was an impressive dude,” DiVirgilio said. “But we are overpaying for this position, in my opinion.”
DiVirgilio, like other council members, said that Park City is similar to Hermosa Beach in that is a small community that hosts large events, and Bakaly was the standout candidate among the four the council interviewed.
But DiVirgilio said Bakaly’s contract is too close to the $240,000 contract former city manager Steve Burrell earned after 18 years on the job.
Bakaly’s base salary would be $185,000, with up to a 7 percent performance bonus, a $25,000 lump sum to relocate to the Hermosa Beach area, and $8,000 a year in deferred compensation. Bakaly will receive more than four weeks paid vacation, six months’ salary and medical benefits for “no cause” termination. The city will also pay 7 percent of his annual salary to his CalPERS retirement fund, which amounts to about $13,000-$14,000 a year, DiVirgilio said.
In his contract, Bakaly agreed that if Hermosa changes its policy and no longer pays the employee’s portion for other city employees then his contract would reflect that change.
Bobko said the contract “camouflaged” the real value of Bakaly’s contract. Council member Howard Fishman disagreed, saying the proposed contract was made public.
“I get the fact that philosophically there’s some disagreement with some of the terms and conditions in respect to the compensation,” Fishman said. “But you can’t get anymore transparent than attaching an agreement that spells out the benefits package.”
Mayor Jeff Duclos said that he spoke with a number of people Bakaly works with and has worked with. “It was like an echo chamber,” Duclos said. “They all spoke of him as a leader.”
“He’s a great find,” said Council member Peter Tucker.
The council voted 4-1 to approve Bakaly as city manager, with DiVirgilio dissenting. The vote was 3-2 to approve his contract, with DiVirgilio and Bobko dissenting.
Bakaly and his wife Pam have a teenage son, Henry. Bakaly is an avid skier, fly fisherman and cribbage player, according to the Park City website.
The vote on the city manager came after midnight, following a lengthy public hearing on a new residential trash hauling contract. The opportunity for public comment on the city manager and his contract came a few minutes before midnight, and no one from the public spoke.
Bakaly has been the city manager of Park City for ten years. He will take over for Interim City Manager John Jalili, who took the job when Burrell retired in March. Bakaly also worked for the city of Pasadena in a variety of positions, including budget director.
Bakaly’s base salary in Park City was $141,415, in addition to about $40,000 more a year in additional benefits, including health and retirement, said Brooke Moss, the Park City Human Resources manager.
