By Mary Thurwachter
It’s been a year since Highland Beach Commissioners voted to hire Kathleen Weiser as town manager, which means it’s time for a performance evaluation and discussion of a merit increase. Those topics were on the agenda for the town’s May 29 workshop meeting, but didn’t go very far.
Before the discussion could take place, each commissioner was to meet with Weiser separately and do individual assessments of her work. Four commissioners had done just that, but Mayor Bernard Featherman had yet to complete his assessment of Weiser.
Commissioners tabled the pay raise talk until the June 5 meeting. In the meantime, Weiser will send copies of each commissioner’s evaluation of her to fellow commissioners. She will do this, she said, as soon as she receives an evaluation from Featherman.
Featherman said the commission would vote by resolution on a pay increase and the percentage of increase has yet to be decided.
For all of the commissioners except Doris Trinley, this was their first go round at evaluating a town clerk. Former Town Manager Dale Sugerman, who was suspended in January 2011 after commissioners disagreed with his handling of an email flap involving Town Clerk Beverly Brown, didn’t fare well in his final evaluation. Commissioners voted not to give him a raise after his suspension. His contract was not renewed. Wieser came aboard last year, first as interim town manager.
In other action, commissioners discussed repairing or replacing the walking path, one of the town’s top goals for the next three years.
Weiser said solutions ranged from patching and repairing, which would cost an estimated $65,000, to constructing a new path, which would cost from $370,000 to $700,000.
“Where will the money come from?” Trinley asked. “Even over a three-year period, that’s a lot of money in these economic times.”
Vice Mayor Ron Brown said the walking paths are one of the town’s most well-used and most popular commodities but are in bad shape. “Times are getting better,” he said. “We need to decide how much we want to spend and go to the financial advisory board.”
Brown said the town could spend $350,000 on the project without holding a referendum.
In another matter, commissioners congratulated Cale Curtis for his promotion to town finance director on May 24. Curtis, who has worked for the town for five years, was acting finance director for the past year and deputy finance director before that. He received a 5 per cent raise. Ú
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