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In response to Councilman Leipzig's question, Mayor Hartnett said the members of the Council Salary Committee were himself, Vice Mayor Howard and Councilwoman La Berge. Councilman Leipzig said he agreed with Councilwoman Buchan. He said the meetings last year with the City Manager were productive, and he had also looked forward to another meeting. Councilman Leipzig said, "This is a little surprising to me to see this on the agenda tonight without any further discussion, and I too, don't want to offend anyone, particularly the City Manager... but I am not comfortable voting on this tonight. Not because of any percentage, maybe this percentage is too low, maybe it is too high, I don't know. We as a Council said we were going to come back and do some more talking and reviewing, and we haven't done that. That is why I am uncomfortable voting on this tonight, and ifforced, I will have to vote 'no'." Councilman Ruskin said, "I respect everyone's opinion on this. I was surprised when I saw this on the agenda, but was surprised because I was under a misapprehension that we were going to be discussing the salaries as such in closed session. When I was informed when asking some questions that the Charter or ordinance prohibits us ITom discussing that in closed session, I no longer had the objection that I did. I am content with continuing to have discussions about performance and still approving this modest increase at this point." Councilman Claire said he understood that while he was off the Council, things changed, but in the past the City Manager's salary was discussed by the Personnel Committee. He said the report was sketchy and the requested increase might be too low, he just didn't know. In response to Councilman Claire's request for clarification on what and what could not be discussed in closed session, City Attorney Schricker said, "It is actually case interpretation of the Brown Act" that prohibits discussion of the City Manager's salary in closed session. "It provides that performance evaluations may be conducted in closed sessions, but actual approvals of salaries must be taken in open session." City Manager Everett said the case law was less than two years old. In response to Councilman Claire's questions regarding the previous process of adding a merit increase to the COLA negotiated by the Executive Services group, City Attorney Schricker provided a brief history of past practices. He added that City Manager Everett's terms and conditions are different ITom previous City Managers and ITom the Executive Service, and are provided in a letter agreement. "Some years ago there was a practice that Councilman Claire remembers, of having both merit increases and a COLA. My recollection is that Council disapproved of that practice. In the context of not approving two raises for individuals in a given year. And that policy was then changed and the Executive Services program has a different approach now. There are still brackets of compensation but there is one adjustment per year.... The adjustments made on merit are REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTE BOOK NO. 55 APRIL 21, 1997 MINUTES Page No. 260 PAGE 8