City administrator, clerk receive raises

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

It’s been a busy year for Charles City Administrator Steve Diers and City Clerk Trudy O’Donnell.

They each received raises after a closed City Council session on Monday.

Diers was awarded a 4.65 percent pay increase or approximately $5,000 from his current 2018 salary. Diers will now make $112,468, retroactive to the start of the new city fiscal year, July 1. O’Donnell received a 2.5 percent raise, similar to other city employees, and her base pay is now $66,315.

“I thought the council was very supportive of both parties and very pleased with their performance,” said Charles City Mayor Dean Andrews.

Whether it be negotiating a new contract for the city’s transit system, helping replace the Charley Western Bridge or work with the McQuillen Place, Diers had plenty of big projects to oversee and help move in the right direction.

“As kind of recognition of that, we gave him a little bit higher increase,” said Andrews.

Diers helped orchestrate and finalize the city’s new transit system contract, which begins on Aug. 1 and runs through June 30, 2019. The new partnership is with Circle K Communications, owned by Tammy and Dan Elthon. NIACOG is also involved in the contract.

“He had a lot of things this year that he had to do a lot of behind–the–scenes work on and we were very pleased with the results,” said Andrews.

Diers was hired as Charles City administrator in March 2014. Prior to that he was city manager at Independence.

O’Donnell took over as city clerk in Charles City in July 2007. She was the city clerk in Riceville for nine years before coming to Charles City.

Also at a special meeting of the city council held on Monday, council members agreed on setting dates for public hearings regarding the storm sewer replacement on Hulin Street and the lime residual removal project. The next date for discussion on those projects is slated for August 6.