WNCT
Please enter a search term.
Please enter a search term.
by: Kaci Jones
Posted:
Updated:
by: Kaci Jones
Posted:
Updated:
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Charlotte City Council approved a significant raise for the city’s highest-paid employee. Effective July 2023, City Manager Marcus Jones will earn $434,551 annually.
Charlotte’s government functions under a council-manager structure.
Jones gives weekly updates at the council meeting. He reports to the council, which hired him to implement policy decisions like staying within the budget.
The city manager also oversees the daily operations of 18 departments, including police, fire, and CATS.
Jones’ salary makes him the highest-paid employee in Charlotte’s history earning $208.92 an hour. This raise is a more than $50,000 retroactive pay raise for 2022 and 2023.
Only some council members agreed to the deal.
Council members Braxton Winston, Reneé Johnson, and LaWana Mayfield voted against giving the city manager a raise.
“We’re saying that we’re willing to allocate all this money for an individual, yes he does a great job,” Mayfield said. “For a city our size, this is truly a level of not hearing what is going on in our community.”
Sitting next to City Manager Jones in Monday’s council meeting, council member Mayfield expressed concerns about the nearly half-a-million-dollar salary.
For comparison, Raleigh’s city manager makes $294,525. The president of the United States makes $400,000.
“I think council is showing a level of being tone deaf to the issues we have,” Mayfield said. “Yes, our manager does a great job, but he is doing his job.”
Jones will get some of his pay raise starting now, and the remainder will kick in by July of 2023.
If council approves, he will have another performance review in 2023, opening the door for another pay raise.
A spokesman from the City of Charlotte provided a list of City Manager Marcus Jones’ accomplishments over the past two years:
Copyright 2022 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Thanks for signing up!
Watch for us in your inbox.
Subscribe Now
- Latest
- Trending