City manager gets pay raise in Wheaton
The collective eyes of the Wheaton City Council squinted into the future Monday night as they rewarded City Manager Don Rose for his work during the last year.
Rose said he's not yet contemplating retirement following the city council's approval of his annual raise.
Rose, the longest serving city manager in all of DuPage County, will now earn $170,000 a year with a $17,500 annual contribution from city coffers into Rose's deferred compensation plan.
Mayor Mike Gresk said he did ask Rose if he was thinking about retiring anytime soon, but left it to Rose to answer.
"As long as I can keep these seven people happy, I'll be here for awhile," Rose said, referring to the city council. "That's almost an impossible task, but that's what I strive for."
Rose's major task in the upcoming year will the progress made toward redeveloping the current site of Hubble Middle school at the southern gateway to the downtown.
The city council views the parcel as probably the last major piece of land in the city that will be developed for at least a generation of residents.
Applications to become the city's consultant for the project are due this Friday. Gresk said he's received some one-on-one inquiries already. The obstacle to finding such a consultant may be the stipulation that the consultant's firm will be excluded from bidding on the actual redevelopment project.
"I've talked to a couple of people who will remain nameless that have asked about the position, then when they realized they couldn't bid on it they said, 'No, I don't want to do this anymore.'"
Gresk said he's still confident the city will find a consultant for the project.
One of Rose's other major tasks for the year will also be bringing the long-standing negotiations for a new contract with fire department employees to a close.
Contract discussions with firefighters have lingered for more than year now.
"That's what it is, lingering," Gresk said. "It'll get done. They'll work their way through it. If it has to go to arbitration, fine."