Assembly members gave positive reviews of both the municipal administrator and the city attorney Tuesday night in the Assembly's annual evaluation of their performance in office.
After emerging from closed-door evaluation sessions, Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz announced that the Assembly had offered pay raises to both Administrator John Leach and Attorney Rachel Jones.
In addition to granting the raises, the Assembly told Leach he can start the process of hiring a deputy administrator.
The city administrator and attorney are the only two city employees who are hired directly by the Assembly. The annual evaluation of their performance in office is part of their terms of employment.
Each official is given the choice of having their evaluation in public or behind closed doors. Both Leach and Jones chose private executive sessions.
Jones was evaluated first over the course of almost two hours, with the Assembly members inviting Jones to join them for one hour of the executive session.
Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz said afterward that the Assembly gave Jones "an exemplary review, and we will be offering our municipal attorney a 5 percent increase in her base rate of pay."
Rachel Jones has been municipal attorney since September 2024, and was hired with a salary of $162,500.
"It's been a brief time and a busy time we understand, but we as an Assembly feel you are the correct person for that position," Eisenbeisz said when her evaluation session was over.
Leach was present for one hour of the Assembly's private, two-hour review of the administrator.
Eisenbeisz said afterward that Leach also received an "exemplary review" from the Assembly.
"We're going to offer, for this next contract period, a salary of $170,000 per year," Eisenbeisz said.
Leach was hired as administrator in October 2019 with a salary of $125,000, and his employment agreement has been amended each year since then.
In 2020, the Assembly raised his salary to $140,000.
During its 2023 evaluation, the Assembly approved a 5.4 percent increase to the administrator's 2020 pay, for a salary of about $148,000.
In its April 2024 evaluation, the Assembly amended Leach's employment agreement to provide for 12 months of severance pay in the event that Leach is terminated by the Assembly.
Following conversations during the private review of Leach's job performance on Tuesday, Eisenbeisz said that "it is the Assembly's wish that we hire a deputy administrator as well."
"The Assembly feels that it is time with the growth of our organization that that (deputy administrator) position is key," Eisenbeisz said.
He asked Leach to "start that process of building a job description" for the position and thanked him for his ongoing work for the city.
A story in the April 16, 2025 edition of the Sentinel incorrectly stated the salary of City Administrator John Leach with the pay raise offered by the Assembly. The raise will bring the administrator's pay to $170,000, not $175,000 as erroneously stated in the Sentinel story. Also, the story had an error in the figure for Leach's starting salary in 2019, which was actually $125,000, not $140,000.
