Council approves resolution giving city manager flexibility to raise finance director’s salary range

The Oakdale City Council approved a resolution authorizing the city manager to select the salary-range placement for the finance director, a change staff said will help retain the incumbent and make future recruitment more competitive.

Interim City Manager Jerry Romar told the council the finance director, Albert Avila, has served the city more than 21 years and currently occupies range 4.92 at the top step. Romar said peer agencies’ top steps are higher and that moving the finance director to range 4.82 (a range used for comparable department heads) would raise pay closer to market. Romar presented figures showing the finance director’s current annual pay at about $166,000 and said the proposed adjustment could increase annual compensation by about $22,000 with roughly $8,800 of that annual increase borne by the general fund based on the director’s multi-fund funding split.

Council members said retention of an experienced finance director is less costly than recurring turnover and praised the director’s role in maintaining a roughly 40% general-fund reserve. The resolution passed on a roll-call vote of 5-0 with Mayor Pro Tem Smith, Council members Gilbert, Potassie and Kettering, and Mayor Sherilyn Berrios voting yes.

Staff said if the director later departs, the city manager will use the flexibility to select an appropriate range for a successor. The council did not set a retirement date or other schedule for the finance director; the action authorized only the city-manager discretion described in the staff resolution.