MENOMINEE — The Menominee City Council approved a 3% raise for City Manager Brett Botbyl at last week’s city council meeting.
The unanimous vote, with nobody absent, came after a review of the city manager’s performance. The 3% reflects the percentage increase that city employees received this year. Botbyl’s salary is currently at $122,000.
The city council approved Botbyl as the permanent city manager in March 2022 after he had served as the interim for almost a year. He has served roughly three years in the position, coming from his previous role as chief of the Menominee Police Department.
The council took turns discussing their performance review of Botbyl, starting with council member Donna Marineau.
“I can say that I really, truly believe he is a very patient man when it comes to this marijuana thing because it really disturbs the hell out of me,” Marineau said. “I know that he’s been very patient about it. He could probably go off the rails if he wanted to, but he hasn’t.”
She cited that his strength was also the budget, which the council also approved unanimously at the meeting.
Council member Bill Plemel said Botbyl got high marks from him, with room for improvement in one area.
“Some of the ones he’s scoring the lowest on, what Donna just mentioned, communications with the council and the public,” Plemel said. “He will do better at that because I’ve noticed there’s been more communication in the last week or so than we’ve had in the last couple months or so.”
Council member Michael DeDamos said the 3% raise was fair, and new council member Cheryl Haupt said his initiative in the Michigan Municipal League training sessions for the council was appreciated.
Compared to previous city managers, council member Joe Dulak said Botbyl’s performance made the council more effective.
“From a historical perspective if you look at how Brett has done in relationship to previous city managers, he’s been stellar,” Dulak said.
Council member Doug Robinson said the city needed to address the small things.
“There’s so many things in this city that are projects that have been started over the past eight years… that are still there,” Robinson said.
He criticized the role of city manager, asking Brett to be stern with his team to get small projects completed.
He mentioned the city’s parking lot and bricks falling apart on the facade. He also mentioned telephone poles in the industrial park. He said that if the city doesn’t start a line item budget for these things, they won’t get done. He asked Botbyl to listen to the city council.
“A majority of the council gives you direction on what to do. That’s been done, at times begrudgingly, and at times with — let’s just say I would prefer to see a more positive attitude, even if it’s faked,” Robinson said.
“I’m not fake; that’s not going to happen,” Botbyl said.
“I know you’re not,” Robinson said.
Council member Josh Jones said he’d like to see Botbyl set goals for what he’d like to accomplish in the year ahead.
Botbyl made his remarks at the end, reiterating that he wants to keep communication lines open.
“I would rather have a candid conversation and deal with it up front and personal rather than having it fester and stew,” Botbyl said.
He mentioned that the city council has sometimes made it challenging to prepare for meetings.
“When I come to the meeting, and a proposal for agenda items is brought up by council members that I have no knowledge of — how am I to prepare for that? And that information comes from the attorneys of the litigants that are suing us? Yeah, there’s an issue there,” Botbyl said.
He said that council members shouldn’t be directly contacting department heads, something Robinson mentioned earlier as being prohibited by the city charter.
“We can work together, but again, it has to be a mutual relationship in order to move forward and get better,” Botbyl said.
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