SAN BENITO — Try again?
For apparently the fourth time in about six months, city commissioners have postponed City Manager Manuel De La Rosa’s semi-annual evaluation.
Commissioners were expected to conduct the evaluation during a closed-session meeting Tuesday, according to the meeting’s agenda stating “semi-annual evaluation of the city manager.”
“City Manager Manuel De La Rosa is looking forward to his scheduled evaluation by the city commission,” city spokeswoman Martha McClain stated in a press release Monday.
Now, the evaluation might be conducted during commissioners’ next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 19, City Commissioner Esteban Rodriguez said yesterday.
Rodriguez and McClain declined to disclose the reason commissioners did not conduct the evaluation, citing discussions were held in executive session.
“The city manager wanted us to make a decision on when and how we were going to conduct it,” Rodriguez said.
Commissioners met with De La Rosa for about 30 minutes.
“There were concerns brought up,” Rodriguez said. “Everybody aired out what they wanted — things that we want done.”
Rodriguez said he does not want to give De La Rosa a pay increase.
“I don’t see him going beyond his duties,” Rodriguez said earlier this week.
It appears commissioners conducted De La Rosa’s last evaluation more than a year ago.
“The evaluation format the city commission and I agreed upon was last conducted during November 2016,” De La Rosa stated in an email Monday.
In December 2015, the previous city commission approved De La Rosa’s contract, which requires six-month evaluations that could lead to $5,000 pay increases upon “above-satisfactory” job performance ratings.
If commissioners do not evaluate him, the city is required to give De La Rosa a $5,000 annual pay increase if he received an “above-satisfactory’ rating on his last evaluation, McClain stated.
“In essence, if the commission fails to evaluate Mr. De La Rosa, as per terms of his agreement, he is entitled to an increase if his last evaluation was ‘above satisfactory,’ which it was,” McClain stated.
De La Rosa was hired at a salary of $95,000 in December 2015.
Now, his salary stands at $110,000.
Rodriguez said he and Commissioner Tony Gonzales voted against giving De La Rosa his contract, which runs through Jan. 31, 2020.
“To me, that’s a lot of money to give every evaluation,” Rodriguez said.
It appears commissioners have not evaluated De La Rosa this year.
“The city manager said he has placed the evaluation item on the city commission agenda three times previously and the commission had not chosen to undertake it,” McClain stated in the press release.
In June, commissioners apparently postponed an evaluation, in part because Mayor Ben Gomez, who won election the month before, wanted more time to review De La Rosa’s job performance, the press release stated.
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