Lake Havasu City council approves employment contracts for three senior officials after favorable evaluations

Lake Havasu City Council on May 28 approved employment contracts for City Manager Jessica Knutson, City Magistrate Mitchell Kalali and City Attorney Kelly C. Gary after favorable evaluations earlier in May.

The contracts were presented to the council as part of a package of three items that followed evaluations on May 14. Vice Mayor Dave Lane, who led the evaluation process, told the council he discussed compensation individually with each of the three employees and said "they did not want to have any raise in compensation at all." He said the officials had declined increases because the city is conducting a positional analysis.

Council members moved and seconded the three motions in separate votes. Each vote carried 6–0. The council recorded the approvals as: approval of City Manager employment contract with Jess Knutson; approval of the City Magistrate employment contract with Mitchell Kalali; and approval of the City Attorney employment contract with Kelly C. Gary.

Lane described the evaluation process as including one-on-one meetings with the three employees and council input; he said the employees "received glowing evaluations" and that public comments the vice mayor received were positive. The mayor opened public hearings for each contract; no members of the public spoke on the items.

The council also noted that eligible employees will continue to receive routine step increases where applicable under the existing budget, but that these three officials declined additional raises while the positional analysis is completed.

The approvals finalize the council's direction following the May 14 evaluations and keep the three senior positions under the terms discussed in the contracts brought back to the council.