Modesto to consider city manager contract

The Modesto City Council on Tuesday will consider appointing interim City Manager Jim Holgersson for the permanent job and at an annual salary of $210,136.

He has been interim city manager since May, and in October, the council voted 7-0 to have staff enter into contract negotiations with him for city manager. The council picked Holgersson after its executive search consultant conducted a city manager recruitment. He was one of two finalists, but the other dropped out.

Holgersson has more than 35 years of experience running cities in several states, including stints as city manager of Arlington, Texas, for more than six years and as a deputy city manager in San Jose for five years. He has drawn praise for his work in Modesto. He came here from the San Jose office of the government consulting firm Management Partners.

Holgersson said he hopes to be city manager for at least four years. He said some of his goals, based on discussions with and direction from the council, include continuing the work to make the city financially self-sustaining, economic development and forging closer relationships between Modesto and its local government partners, and strengthening the ties between the city and its neighborhoods.

He is replacing Greg Nyhoff, who left Modesto after nearly six years to become city manager of Oxnard in Southern California. Holgersson would earn slightly more than Nyhoff, who was paid about $200,000 in 2013.

Holgersson said he also receives about $78,000 annually in pension payments from San Jose and the Texas Municipal Retirement System. He said those pension systems do not limit the number of hours he can work.

City Attorney Adam Lindgren and Bob Murray with Bob Murray & Associates – the council’s executive search consultant – negotiated Holgersson’s contract based on the direction of council members.

The contract calls for Holgersson to receive a $6,000 annual car allowance, as much as $15,000 for moving expenses to Modesto (he has been staying here during the workweek and driving home to San Jose on the weekends), four weeks of vacation per year and severance pay if the council releases him without cause.

As city manager, Holgersson would be an at-will employee and serve at the pleasure of the council.

Under the contract, he would receive nine months of severance if he is let go without cause during his first year. The number of months of severance decreases by one for each additional year of employment. For instance, if the council were to let Holgersson go in his third year, it would owe him seven months of severance pay.

The council could avoid paying Holgersson severance by giving him notice that it planned to release him that is at least equal to the number of months of severance he would be owed. So if he were entitled to six months of severance, the council could avoid that by giving him at least six months’ notice that it planned to let him go.

He is not entitled to severance if he is dismissed for cause, such as for theft or conviction of a crime related to his fitness to perform his duties.

In other action, the council is expected to consider rescinding its decision last year to place a residential urban limit boundary on the November ballot.

The city’s staff recommends removing the RUL from the ballot because the Stamp Out Sprawl proposal recently qualified for the November ballot. SOS was initiated by local residents and calls for an urban growth boundary around the city.

The staff says it could confuse voters to have two competing measures in the same election. Both proposals call for a citywide vote before development could take place beyond the boundary. The RUL would apply only to residential development. The SOS plan would apply to all development.

The council will meet at 5:30 p.m. in the basement chambers of Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St.

This story was originally published November 24, 2014 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Modesto to consider city manager contract."