The outgoing city manager's deal was a handshake salary, a take-home car, and an unwritten severance promise, and a new appointment is imminent. What should the CHRO put in front of the council?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
A handshake plus a car is not a pay strategy — it is a story nobody can defend on camera. Write the salary, the deferred piece, the severance, and the perks so council can vote them in the light. Folklore is how cities get surprise payouts.
Full Explanation
Executive compensation requires a documented strategy the governing body can defend to residents and auditors. Salary, deferred compensation, severance, and perquisites should be specified, benchmarked, and adopted in a form that survives sunshine laws. Replicating informal folklore or hiding the cash terms in a sidebar recreates the governance failure. Artificially capping the manager at a department-head rate is a political dodge, not a strategy.