Treasurer pay raise raises concerns

By Paul Sloth
Journal Times

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 8:59 PM CDT

BURLINGTON — A bump in pay for the city’s treasurer raised a few eyebrows when the Burlington City Council approved it unanimously late last month.

Not only because the city treasurer is former Mayor Claude Lois’ daughter, but also because Bridget Lois’ raise jumped from a previously agreed upon 5 percent to more than 26 percent after only a year on the job.

Lois was hired in June 2007 as the city’s budget officer and given some of the former finance director/treasurer’s responsibilities, except accounting functions. Lois lacked an accounting background, which is not uncommon in smaller communities, experts say. Her contract specified that after one year she could receive a raise of up to 5 percent, said city Administrator Kevin Lahner.

At the time of Lois’ hiring, some aldermen made a failed attempt to create a nepotism policy, which opponents called redundant because of the city’s ethics policies.

The questions that have surrounded Lois’ hiring and the subsequent scrutiny, though, have led the city’s administrator to create a stricter personnel policy that he believes would prevent a similar hiring situation from occurring in the future.

Lahner said he plans to present the policy to the City Council later this month.

“The point of the policy, part of an overall personnel policy, is to prevent that issue from arising, to not have to face the type of scrutiny or have those questions raised,” Lahner said.

The city now pays Lois — who was hired in 2007 after interning at City Hall — $48,125 per year in salary. Her previous salary was a little more than $38,000, a roughly 26.6 percent pay increase.

She received the raise after an annual review by Lahner, who started as the city administrator in January.

“What I determined at the time was that position and the level of responsibility and her performance warranted an increase to make it more competitive,” Lahner said. “I made the determination that she is a valuable employee. She deserves to be here.”

The city also pays an outside firm $37,000 annually, about $3,000 each month, to go through the city’s books, double check internal controls, and help city staff prepare for annual audits, Lahner said. Lois is gradually taking on more of those responsibilities, he added.

The city’s last treasurer, Terri Padgett, started in 2000 making $55,000 and was making $66,456 in 2006 when she left, a 21 percent salary increase over six years. She was a certified public accountant.

Lahner said he made his decision based on what he found other communities were paying to do the same work. He researched communities like Elkhorn, Portage, Hartford and Whitewater, he said.

There are no rules about who municipalities can hire or what kind of experience treasurers should have.

Mary Hinske, treasurer for Elkhorn, said an accounting background is helpful, especially in the area of municipal accounting, which can be fairly complex.

“It makes life really interesting when you don’t have an accounting background,” Hinske said. “Hopefully, she’s a real fast study and can learn the accounting.”

Hinske, a certified public accountant, makes $70,817 per year and has been on the job nine years. The city’s assistant treasurer makes $41,000 per year.

There is no hard data on exactly how many of the estimated 1,800 municipal treasurers in Wisconsin have accounting backgrounds.

“It depends on the size of the community,” said Lois Frank, president of the Municipal Treasurers Association of Wisconsin. “In smaller communities there are probably very few that have accounting degrees.”

It can depend on what that community is looking for and the quality of the applicant pool, said Frank, clerk/treasurer in the village of Cambria, near Portage.

Larger cities, which often pay more, can attract more applicants, even from out of state, said Frank.

Leaders of the union that represents some Burlington city workers opposed Lois’ hiring last year and felt the raise she received last month was out of line, said Debra Rintamaki, vice president/secretary of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 187. The union represents an estimated 35 city employees.

“Is the union happy about it? No. If the citizens don’t care, and they haven’t listened to us previously, there is not much more we can do,” said Rintamaki, an administrative assistant in the city’s Department of Public Works. “I hope they’re as generous with us (the union) when it comes time to negotiate.”

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