Ceres hires Toby Wells as city manager

For the first time in nearly 31/2 years, Ceres has a permanent city manager.

The council voted unanimously to hire Toby Wells, the city’s engineer and public works director, who had been acting city manager since March.

When Wells was voted into the interim role, the council had planned to wait until June to evaluate his performance and decide if it wanted to retain him as permanent city manager. But while discussing Wells’ compensation at its last meeting, on April 14, council members said they were ready to make it official.

Wells stepped in when acting City Manager Art de Werk told the council he wanted to return his focus to his original roles as police chief and public safety director. De Werk had held the position since December 2010, when Brad Kilger left to become city manager in Benicia.

As compensation for his role as acting city manager, de Werk was exempted from the 10 percent pay cut imposed on all city employees since 2010.

A contract brought before the council April 14 outlining Wells’ compensation for acting city manager would have increased his pay from $127,517 to $144,000 annually. Councilman Mike Kline said Wells was deserving of the increase but didn’t think such a significant raise for someone in an interim position would sit well with employees still negotiating a 5 percent restoration of their pay.

Everyone on the council, though, expressed interest in hiring Wells permanently and tabled the issue of his salary until Monday, when they could execute that decision. In the meantime, a new contract was drawn up and Wells’ compensation was bumped to $150,000, what Kilger earned when he left the city.

Wells also will get 2 percent of his salary paid into a retirement fund, $500 car and $50 cellphone allowances each month and a six-month severance package in the event of his termination.

The agreement and salary increase will not be retroactive to the time Wells started in March, but became effective Monday. He will continue to serve as engineer and public works director until a replacement can be found.

Also Monday, the council approved a contract with the Ceres Mid-Managers Bargaining Group that will restore half of a 10 percent pay concession over the next two years. The group of six employees will have five furlough days in the coming fiscal year rather than 13 and get back one holiday. They will have no furlough days the following year.

The public safety managers were the first group to come to an agreement with the city at the April 14 meeting and also will have 5 percent of their pay restored over the next two years.

Four bargaining units have not reached agreements with the city, including the Ceres Police Officers Association, which has come to an impasse with the city.

Ceres Police Officers Association President Danny Vierra said he’s most concerned about a 13 percent pay cut new employees will take as a result of the Public Safety Retirement Reform Act. Employees hired after Jan. 1, 2013, must contribute 50 percent of their retirement, equivalent to 13 percent of their pay, Vierra said. He said the union wants the city to offset some of those costs, but it won’t.

Vierra said the city also is offering only 4 percent restoration of pay to the group rather than the 5 percent offered to the two management groups.

If the city and the association cannot come to an agreement, the city “may impose the last, best and final offer that we gave them,” said Betina McCoy, human resources director.

This story was originally published April 28, 2014 at 10:07 PM with the headline "Ceres hires Toby Wells as city manager."