Village manager review indicates public works director was not paid ‘what we should be paying him’

By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Village Council approved a 5% raise for administrative and non-union employees and a 5% increase in pay rates and pay ranges to the same unfilled positions.
The decision was approved 6-0 in a roll-call vote during a regular village council meeting on May 28. Council member Nancy Moshier was absent.
According to a council action summary sheet, “the adjustments to the salary or wage ranges is commensurate with the Michigan Department of Treasury inflation rate of 5.1% for the past year.”
Calculations used to find the inflation rate ratio for 2024 property taxes revealed a 5.1% change between the 2021-2022 fiscal year and 2022-2023 fiscal year, according to the Michigan Department of Treasury.
Village Manager Darwin McClary said the 5% adjustments also keep “with the adjustment for the union contracts.”
The public works director’s salary is the one exception, according to McClary.
“My concern with his salary actually came up last year when I was doing the research and looking at the data for communities (with a) 2,000-to-4,000 population in Michigan with somewhat similar taxable values,” McClary said. “This particular position, with his years of service, indicated to me we were not paying him what we should be paying him.”
McClary said he reviewed the information again this year and found that the director’s salary “is behind where he should be.” For this reason, McClary said he recommended an adjustment of more than 5%.
The 5% raise to the public works director’s salary was originally listed as $67,662 to $71,045 in village documents.
According to the meeting’s agenda packet, the rest of the wage increases are as follows:
The village clerk/treasurer salary increased from $74,500 to $78,225 and the deputy clerk/treasurer salary increased from $62,000 to $65,100. The deputy finance treasurer’s pay increased from $24.04 per hour to $25.24 per hour.
The office coordinator, account clerk and utility billing clerk moved from $22.96 per hour to $24.11 per hour.
The village is in the process of searching for a new police chief. The salary range fort the position was increased from between $70,000 and $89,000 to between $73,500 and $93,450. The police lieutenant’s pay increased from $35.47 per hour to $37.24 per hour.
The lifeguard supervisor pay increased from $19 per hour to $20 per hour, while the returning lifeguard and new lifeguard’s pay increased from $17 per hour to $18 per hour and $16 per hour to $17 per hour, respectively.
The village manager’s salary change is pending completion of an evaluation by the village council, according to council members.
The increases are for the 2024-2025 fiscal year that begins July 1.