By Camas Frank

As a last order of business before a late at night adjournment June 2 the SLO City Council voted by a margin of 4-1 to give City Manager Katie Lichtig and City Attorney Christine Dietrick pay raises.
Councilwoman Carlyn Christianson took a moment to add that both employees, the only two directly hired by the Council, “have done an excellent job through the years, and called the adjustments “very small.”
Negotiated in a closed session meeting back in April, the increases use the report of a hired consultant to benchmark the pay of other “comparable cities.” Lichtig will receive a one-time, $7,600 bonus and the restoration of a $450 a month car allowance.
Dietrick got a 7-percent raise and her new annual salary is $187,252, which a staff report said was still 5-percent below the market rate.
Councilman Dan Carpenter did not comment before casting a dissenting vote, but he has opposed past increases for the pair. In 2012, he voted against a 3.5-percent increase for Dietrick, which came after staff had made voluntary pay concessions in 2011.
Both Litchtig and Dietrich have been in their positions since 2010 earning $221,500 and $155,000 to start. Total compensation for the city manager is now $313,000.
Before her appointment to City Attorney, Dietrich was assistant city attorney for five years.
Christianson’s comments on the performance reviewed echoed the Council’s previous budget hawk Andrew Carter, who led the charge for cutbacks in 2010 and 2011. In voting for Dietrich’s first pay rise in 2012 he said performance had been, “stellar.”
Members of the public were less enthusiastic about the increases, calling increases for leadership positions alternately “exorbitant” or the product of a “bizarre oversight process.”
Resident Paul Reese said his opposition to the outcome of the annual review wasn’t personal to either employee but that there should be a “citizen’s oversight process for compensation and performance review” to ensure that the same people working with senior staff every day aren’t also dolling out raises.