Salisbury council approves retroactive raises and contract change after closed personnel sessions

Salisbury City Council on March 4 approved retroactive pay adjustments and a contract change for two senior officials after returning from closed session.

The council voted to give City Manager Jim Green a 4.5% increase retroactive to July 2024 and to add family insurance coverage to his employment contract; the council also approved a 3% merit increase for City Attorney Graham Coyer, retroactive to July 2024. The council announced the decisions publicly after the closed session and asked for a motion to adopt the increases, which passed by voice vote.

The council said it held multiple closed sessions in the previous two months to complete annual performance reviews for Green and Coyer, which had not been finished because of “unforeseen circumstances” over the last year. The city manager’s raise was described as restoring the range adjustment that had been granted to other employees during the last budget session but that had not been applied in full to his pay.

Council members moved the motions and approved them by voice vote; no roll-call tallies were recorded in the meeting minutes. Council also voted to adjourn the closed session and recess briefly before continuing the public meeting.

The council did not provide additional details about whether other contract terms or performance benchmarks were changed beyond the family insurance addition for the city manager and the merit increase for the city attorney. The announcements were made from the dais after the council returned to open session and before the remainder of the agenda proceeded.