City Manager receives pay increase post big year in Sherman

Sherman City Manager Robby Hefton could make at least $260,000 over the next year following updates to his contract.

In July, the Sherman City Council voted to accept an amended and restarted contract with Hefton for his services as city manager. This contract, along with his evaluation for the past year, was obtained by the Herald Democrat through a U.S. Freedom of Information Act request.

“There number there wasn’t arbitrary, it was pegging my salary just as they did with all other employees,” Hefton said in a phone interview Friday.

Hefton said this number for based pay was decided on through efforts to increase staff pay to be comparable with other communities of similar size. After reviewing 10 comparable cities, the city decided to model its paygrades off of Waxahachie, who is similar in size and scope while also sitting outside, but not too distant, from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. For some employees, this equated to a 1-2 percent increase, while others saw more drastic increases closer to 8 percent.

Hefton, who has worked with the city since 1996, stepped in to city manager role in 2015. Prior to this, he handled several other positions, including serving as director of finance and deputy city manager.

For the most part, Hefton’s contract remained the same as it did when he took on the role seven years ago. Prior to the amending the document, the contract listed his annual base salary as $161,000 per year. However, this was increased over the years to $228,000 through acts by City Council that were not amended into the contract.

“Some years it has been what they’ve given other employees — X percent cost of living — sometimes it has been not,” Hefton said.

However, the updated contract formalizes the base pay at $260,000.

The new contract includes language on other bonus pay that Hefton could earn each year. The amended contract added up to $20,000 in bonus pay for Hefton meeting objectives on the city’s work plan each year, with each objective earning him $5,000. The update also added clarification on bonus pay that would be earned based on the score of his annual evaluation each year.

Based on this past year’s performance, Hefton would have received an additional 10 percent of his pay and a bonus. The new contract also carried over a $7,500 vehicle allowance that was included in the previous version.

Other language in the revised contract clarified points in the previous iteration, including severance and termination provisions.

City Manager Robby Hefton speaks before the Sherman City Council in April during early budget talks. Hefton received good marks on his recent evaluation by the city council. Michael Hutchins / Herald Democrat