Discussion from last Tuesday's City Commission meeting vis-à-vis City Manager's contract. . .

Play the video to hear the glowing reviews about City Manager Michael Bornstein's tenure in Lake Worth. The comments begin with Mayor Dave Stewart of Lantana. Mr. Bornstein worked for Lantana as their City Manager for 14 years or so. He reminded people of what a true professional we have now after a number of others that have filled the same position over the years. Mayor Stewart also pointed out that Mr. Bornstein is currently the third least-compensated City Manager in Palm Beach County. This fact was later confirmed by the city's Human Resources Director.

There were many others that spoke Mr. Bornstein's praises and I was able to get most of them. This came at the end of the meeting. Unfortunately, the camera battery gave up the ghost after Lisa Maxwell's comments. So, you are missing some other positive comments as a result. If you want to hear the entire discussion, you can find it on the city's website by clicking here.

Of course, there was one detractor from the high praises. That happened to come from the reigning "Ms. Stick-in-the-Mud 2015", JoAnn Golden. I guess she thinks it's more important for the city manager to write reports, like Susan Stanton did, rather than do things that improve the operational qualities of the city. You can hear her 'illuminating' comments at the 14:25 mark of the video.

What started as a simple two year extension of the City Manager's contract evolved into a discussion of extending the contract to five years and throwing in an additional $10,000 per year in compensation. Concern was expressed how many of the city's employees have gone without raises in a very long time and given the head administrator of the city a raise at this time might send a confusing message. However, the final motion was 3-2 to approve a five year extension, with the $10,000 per year increase. It probably would have been unanimous had it not been for the change in compensation, with the other two votes (McVoy and Maier) indicating that they would consider a longer contract but were concerned about the increase in salary.