Finance chief's salary questioned

Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle's decision to pay a new finance director nearly $80,000 more than her predecessor raised a few eyebrows Friday around City Hall.

The pricey hire was announced days after the city said it would close city pools early this year to help save $75,000.

It comes at a time when the mayor is asking police officers, firefighters and other city workers to accept a two-year pay freeze, also to help balance the budget.

“It's a little disingenuous to demand sacrifice for a lot of people when your staff is getting huge increases in pay,'' said City Councilman Chuck Sigerson.

The Suttle administration defended the decision to pay a $180,000 annual salary to new Finance Director Pam Spaccarotella. The city has to offer enough money to lure people from the private sector to fill critical city posts, said Suttle spokesman Ron Gerard.

“We have to be competitive with the private sector to get the level of people that we want,” he said.

In addition, Gerard said, Spaccarotella, like other city department heads and members of the mayor's staff, will be under a four-year wage freeze.

Spaccarotella, a Werner Enterprises executive, will begin her new job July 30. She replaces current Finance Director Carol Ebdon, who is leaving this month to teach at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Ebdon was paid $100,780 annually.

When asked if she would have stayed for her successor's salary, Ebdon said no.

Spaccarotella, 46, declined to reveal what she is being paid at Werner.

She will make more money than the finance directors in the cities of Lincoln and Des Moines, as well as the state's top finance officials.

Sigerson and City Council President Garry Gernandt noted that Spaccarotella is not the only member of Suttle's administration to be hired with a significant pay bump over a predecessor.

The new planning director will earn about $42,000 more than the current one. And two of Suttle's top aides make considerably more than their counterparts under former Mayor Mike Fahey.

Ebdon said the Mayor's Office budgets under both Fahey and Suttle are the same, about $1 million yearly. Suttle made up for the higher salaries by hiring fewer people to do the same amount of work, Gerard said, and eliminating all part-time positions.

Department heads' salaries are paid out of individual department budgets.

This year, city departments have had to make significant budget cuts to help shore up a $14 million shortfall in the 2009 budget. City officials also project an $11 million gap in next year's budget.

Suttle wants the city's unions to agree to wage freezes for this year and next to save millions from those budgets. That issue and others are currently being negotiated.

News about the pay for Suttle's latest hire did not sit well with the president of Omaha's largest civilian union.

Kevin Brown, who leads Omaha City Employees Local 251, called Spaccarotella's pay and the salaries for other recent hires, “a slap in everybody's face, including the taxpayers.”

Brown said the higher salaries won't help persuade union members to accept a wage freeze.

“It reeks of the good old boys system,” he said. “We're going to take care of everybody at the top while everyone at the bottom has to suck it up or suffer.”

The presidents of the police and firefighters unions declined to comment Friday.

At a press conference Friday announcing Spaccarotella's hire, Suttle said Omaha must invest in its people, especially during tough economic times.

“If we are going to solve these problems, we have to have the leadership in place,” he said, adding that Omaha can't get by “on the cheap” to fill top city jobs.

Spaccarotella will be at the helm as the city tries to remedy its budget problems, as well as a $500 million shortfall in the city's police and fire pension fund.

“I set out looking for an individual willing to eagerly take on the task to meet our city's great financial challenges head on,” the mayor said. “She will begin her employment at a time of great economic uncertainty.”

Spaccarotella said she is looking forward to meeting the city's challenges and said she faced similarly difficulties working in the private sector.

“I'm a taxpayer, and of course I'm interested in how my tax money is being spent,” she said.

Spaccarotella is currently an associate vice president at Werner, an Omaha-based trucking company. She is responsible for all the financial aspects of Werner's startup operations abroad, as well as billing, carrier payments and collections and financial reporting.

Gernandt said he hopes “these high-priced individuals” are as good as the mayor says they are, and that they'll help the city navigate the tricky fiscal waters ahead.

“Otherwise,” he said, “I'm going to be demanding some of these salaries back.''

Contact the writer:

44-3100, maggie.obrien@owh.com

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