In a called Dec. 11 meeting, Hollywood Park City Council members directed Mayor Sean Moore and city staff to develop a process where they hope to more effectively address pay adjustments among city department heads.

What happened

Council member Dale Randol first broached the issue, saying Moore has unilaterally increased the salaries of four department heads after the council agreed on specific salaries outlined in the fiscal year 2023-2024 budget passed late in the summer.

Randol said Moore should have first brought the pay adjustments as proposed budget amendments to the full council before they could be finalized. According to city officials, the new salary increases for the four department heads became effective Oct. 1.

Randol said council members and city staff engaged in a lengthy process to develop the FY 2023-24 budget in a transparent manner to benefit residents.

According to Randol, Moore did brief the council in an executive session about the need to immediately increase the budgeted salary of a specific department head—an action that Randol said he and council colleagues felt the mayor could finalize on his own.

However, based on a memorandum from city attorney Ryan Henry, the council felt it needed to address the proposed salary hike in open session, Randol said. Randol added the pay adjustments made for certain department heads essentially undercut all of those budget development efforts, which included increases for city staff.

Digging deeper

Moore said he felt he needed to be proactive and act quickly to adjust department heads’ pay at summer’s end and early fall after Fire Chief John Butrico announced his retirement and Police Chief Shad Prichard considered a similar job in a neighboring town at the time.

Moore added that cities such as Hollywood Park are constantly competing with other towns to retain city staffers who may otherwise seek better pay, benefits or working conditions elsewhere.

“Rather than try to deal with this piecemeal and keep waiting for an additional crisis to occur, and thinking we may not get to next May without at least one more department head going out the door for a better offer ... [these department heads’] salary increases won’t exceed the budget of their department,” Moore told the council.

While several council members suggested forming a policy about pay adjustments, council member Glenna Peace made separate motions to keep the salaries of two department heads—Public Works Director Kelly Cowan and City Secretary Patrick Aten—at their respective salary approved in the FY 2023-24 budget. Council voted to reject those two motions, keeping Cowan at his new salary at $94,000 and Aten at his new salary of $105,000.

The council approved Pearce’s motions to keep Prichard and newly appointed Fire Chief Todd Morgan at $120,000 each.

Council members said they hope to see a new draft policy on staff salary adjustments soon.