San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Retiring Sculley won’t get a special benefits package.
Outgoing city manager will earn base salary of $9,134 per week until she leaves position
Retiring City Manager Sheryl Sculley’s compensation has been the subject of many complaints and much fanciful lore since the beginning of her 13 years as the city’s top executive.
It’s still a question why Sculley decided this week not to seek a performance bonus for 2018, which could have been up to $100,000, but it’s not because she’s expecting a windfall retirement package upon her departure.
Since she is choosing to leave — she has said she will stay through the transition to a new city manager but no later than June 30 — she isn’t entitled to a severance package worth a year’s pay, which would have kicked in had she been fired.
The city manager has negotiated her employment agreement, first signed in 2005 and since amended five times across three different mayors and councils, nearly doubling her base salary in the 13 years since she began. She’s not entitled to anything that isn’t spelled out in that agreement. The facts are in her contract, which is public record and readily available.
“All of the terms of her employment and her separation are spelled out in the contract,” said Jeff Coyle, the city’s director of Government and Public Affairs. “There’s not a more transparent and publicized employment agreement in all of San Antonio.”
Sculley will continue to earn her base salary until her last day at the city. As of Jan. 1, 2018, that amounted to $475,000 annually — before taxes and withholding — which is $9,134.62 a week or $228.37 an hour. As a salaried employee, Sculley does not qualify for overtime.
Her contract stipulates that she receives monthly allowances of $400 for her vehicle and $70 for her cellphone. She receives $6,000 annually for an expense account, which covers everything from professional dues to official
travel. The city covers any income tax on the allowances.
Sculley earns 80 hours of personal leave and 176 hours of annual leave each year.
When Sculley retires, she is allowed to sell back unused annual leave, as is any other city employee. Most employees are capped at 50 days. Sculley’s council-approved contract allows her to sell back as many as 183 days, though she has fewer than the maximum accrued. She’s expected to sell back 137.5 days — about $251,202 worth of time.
Under the terms of the employment agreement, Sculley receives the same health care benefits as other city employees, which include health insurance after retirement. The city covered her health care premiums early in her tenure, but when her contract was amended in 2007, she began paying the same premiums as civilian employees.
Sculley’s original contract was first signed by then-Mayor Phil Hardberger, who along with his council colleagues, amended it twice. Former Mayor Julián Castro and his colleagues also passed two amendments, and former Mayor Ivy Taylor approved one.
Ron Nirenberg is the only mayor Sculley has worked for who hasn’t negotiated a contract amendment with her.
The city funds a deferred compensation of her choosing. That annual amount started at $20,000 and grew to $45,000 in 2011. She also receives $10,000 for supplemental life, disability and long-term care insurance. That, too, will end when she leaves the city payroll.
In 2008, Sculley negotiated a termination package that grew year by year until 2011, when she would have received 21 months of pay had she been fired. But in February 2016, when her contract was amended for the fifth time, by Taylor and the City Council, Sculley’s would-be severance package was walked back to 12 months of base pay.
Taylor also did away with the long-standing practice of giving Sculley retention bonuses and changed the structure for performance bonuses. Nirenberg and the council gave her a $75,000 bonus earlier this year for her 2017 performance.
Though she doesn’t have a retirement package built into her contract, Sculley has paid into the Texas Municipal Retirement System, a statewide retirement plan for municipal employees. She also has paid into Social Security.
It’s unclear what Sculley plans to do after she retires from the city, but she has indicated that she plans to continue working.