The Haines Borough’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year includes a $6,000 pay increase for borough manager Mark Earnest.
Earnest will earn $106,000 annually. He was set for a pay raise earlier this year, when Mayor Jan Hill and Haines Borough Assembly members discussed his performance at a March executive session, but the assembly did not approve the increase until its May 10 meeting.
“I’m going to take full responsibility for this (delay),” Hill said. “In our anxiousness to get out of the assembly chambers the night after we completed the manager’s evaluation, we failed to make a motion to authorize his increase in pay, and we had discussed that, (effective) back to his anniversary date.”
Earnest has been borough manager since January 2010. Following his 6 percent raise, Earnest will be paid $50.96 an hour. Including benefits, the total cost to the borough is $149,660 per year.
The assembly approved the raise with a 6-0 vote.
“I just want to express my extreme appreciation,” Earnest said. “I just really enjoy working here and enjoy, especially, working with the staff, assembly, Mayor and the community.”
On his evaluation, Earnest received an average score of 3.6 on a five-point scale, indicating he met or exceeded job standards.
Assembly member Scott Rossman this week said he was comfortable with Earnest’s pay increase.
“It’s $500 a month, basically, what that comes out to, and we decided he was doing a good enough job to warrant a bump,” Rossman said.
He noted Haines has faced a lot of turnover at the borough manager position since consolidation and joked that Earnest is “a long-timer.”
Member Steve Vick said he was “very pleased” with Earnest’s job performance. He said Earnest is receptive to constructive criticism, responsive to requests from the assembly and has enough job responsibilities he could “work 24/7 if he wanted to.”