Sculley chooses not to take bonus
City manager was up for $100,000 in extra compensation
After months of political turmoil over her $475,000 salary, capped with a resounding rejection by voters in November, City Manager Sheryl Sculley unexpectedly announced Monday that she won’t take a bonus that could have been as much as $100,000.
Since voters approved a city charter amendment limiting the salary and tenure of future city managers by a vote of 59 percent to 41 percent, there had been heated controversy in public and behind closed doors over what was going to happen to Sculley. The amendment doesn’t apply to her, but she was still in her critics’ cross hairs.
Relentless opponents, including Councilman Greg Brockhouse, sought to make the most of the vote on Proposition B, widely seen as a proxy referendum on what many perceived as Sculley’s excessive salary and amassed power.
But with her announcement two weeks ago that she would retire and Monday’s decision to forgo any additional compensation due her, Sculley has pre-empted those critics.
She gave no reason for her decision Monday, but it came just hours after Brockhouse issued a news release calling on his colleagues to discuss her bonus in public rather than in a closeddoor executive session.
“On the heels of a citywide vote that mandated change in the compensation structure of the city manager, the least the full City Council can do is engage a public discussion and public vote,” Brockhouse said, adding that he
would not support any bonus for Sculley.
Brockhouse, a longtime ally of the firefighters union, which launched and successfully won approval of Proposition B, sought to tie Sculley to Mayor Ron Nirenberg. The councilman is expected to challenge Nirenberg in the May city elections.
For his part, Nirenberg hasn’t shied away from supporting Sculley, even after the Nov. 6 vote. He’s called her the “best city manager in the U.S.”
“For 13 years, Sheryl Sculley has been a top-notch city manager with a public service mindset. Today is no different,” the mayor said after her announcement Monday. “We are grateful for her service to the people of San Antonio.”
Though she is retiring and opting out of her performance bonus, Sculley will still be reviewed for her 2018 work, Nirenberg said.
“The city manager is entitled to an annual, professional performance evaluation,” he said. “And it is the council’s responsibility to provide it.”
Sculley isn’t the first public servant to reject a bonus this year. In March, San Antonio Water System President and CEO Robert Puente declined to accept a $96,500 bonus. He previously did so in 2010, as well.
Sculley also passed on a base salary increase in 2010; she was entitled to it under the terms of her contract, but she cited the recession as the reason for giving it up.
Sculley’s last raise came earlier this year.
Based on a contract amendment approved by then-Mayor Ivy Taylor and the council she oversaw, Sculley saw her base salary increase to $450,000 in 2017 and $475,000 this year, with the potential for an annual performance bonus of up to $100,000.
Sources suggested Monday that there wasn’t an appetite among the council to give any bonus to Sculley, though she has the right to one under her contract if she meets set criteria.
In March, the council had to decide on a bonus for Sculley’s 2017 performance, though a majority of the members weren’t seated until the summer. And they had no metrics from which to work because Taylor and the previous council failed to put them into place leading up to the 2017 municipal election.
They settled on $75,000, an amount decided upon behind closed doors and announced by Nirenberg once there was agreement among the council.
The council also set into place a series of metrics and criteria then that it would use to determine the size of Sculley’s bonus at the end of 2018. Just before she announced her retirement, and at the mayor’s request, Sculley submitted a lengthy review of her 2018 performance, the basis for the potential bonus.
“For 13 years, Sheryl Sculley has been a top-notch city manager.” Mayor Ron Nirenberg