Two dozen people spoke during the public comment period of Monday night’s city council meeting. Thomas McKenna | Collegian

The Hillsdale City Council voted 7-2 against extending the city manager’s contract until 2032 after a contentious, hour-long public comment period Monday night.

Most council members — including Mayor Adam Stockford — said they were satisfied by the performance of City Manager David Mackie, whose contract is set to expire in 2028. But Stockford, whose term expires in 2026, voted against extending Mackie’s contract for another four years, saying it would would unfairly bind future councils.

“When there’s three years left on the contract, it just seems goofy to tweak everybody’s noses and extend it past that point when there’s an election in just a couple of weeks,” Stockford said before the vote. “It’s too tough a sell for me to extend this to six years past when my time on the council is going to be over with.”

If the changes had been adopted, Mackie’s tenure would have been extended past 2028 to 2032, adding four years to his current contract as both city manager and director of the Board of Public Utilities. It would have also increased his severance package to 18 months’ pay this year and 24 months’ pay in 2025 as well as given him a 2% increase every year based on job performance.

The council’s Operations and Governance Committee — consisting of councilmen Will Morrissey (Ward 2), Greg Stuchell (Ward 1), and Bruce Sharp (Ward 3) — unanimously recommended the contract amendments to the council earlier this month. But Stuchell voted against the measure on Monday night while praising Mackie as a “bridge” in the city’s transition period.

Before the public comment period, Mackie read a statement “with the purpose of correcting misleading and false statements” on social media.

“For this anonymous group to make up facts to get others riled up to oppose something is unethical and lacks the common decency that they claim to be in pursuit of,” Mackie said. “The city council should not reward these actions or behavior.”

In the days leading up to the meeting, social media posts and an unsigned email from activist group Families for Hillsdale urged citizens to speak against the motion in public comment. More than 24 people gave public comments, with speakers on both sides of the motion.

“Every council election for the next eight years will be a sham, an exercise in futility,” the email read. “Future councils will be neutered, unable to exercise their strongest leverage over the city manager — their power to fire and replace him.”

George Allen, the college’s public services librarian and a member of Families for Hillsdale, said during public comment he had “no criticisms” of Mackie’s performance. But he told the council to reject the proposal because it would deprive future councils the opportunity to judge Mackie’s performance when his contract expires in 2028.

“The city manager makes innumerable day-to-day decisions that directly affect the governance of the town, many of these decisions not escalating to the council for approval or oversight, but that’s what he’s hired for,” Allen said.

After the city council rejected the contract extension, Ward 1 Councilman Tony Vear moved to give Mackie a 2% salary increase based on performance starting Nov. 1. The council approved it 5-4, with Morrissey, Stuchell, Sharp, Vear, and Councilman Gary Wolfram (Ward 3) — director of economics and professor of political economy at the college — voting in favor.

“You did earn it, Dave,” Stockford said after the vote.

Councilman Robert Socha (Ward 4) told The Collegian he voted against the 2% raise because it would have come on top of a cost of living adjustment to Mackie’s salary. 

“I think he’s done his job well,” Socha said. “But I have a hard time giving him an approximately $10,000 raise when we are requiring citizens to pay up to $5,000 to fix the roads in addition to property taxes.”

Socha said the proposed severance package was too large.

“I’ve called other city managers and they say severance packages are commonplace in the industry,” Socha said. “But two years is unreasonable to me.”

Before the measure failed, Mackie said he had sought the contract changes for job security and had not been offered another job. 

Vear said he understood Mackie was seeking security for his family.

“I understand where he’s coming from too as far as having some continuity,” Vear said. “He has kids going to school and he wants to put down some roots. He’s been here for nine years.”

But Vear also said he did not like that the motion was a bundle — an extension, a severance increase, and a pay raise.

“I think there is a lot of credibility to say that other, future councils should have a say in our city manager,” Vear said.

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