Sweeny city manager stripped of car allowance

 Lindsay Koskiniemi - “I’ve never heard of a city reducing a city manager’s benefits, especially when they get a rock star review,” Koskiniemi said. “I don’t think these guys can understand that when I use my vehicle — my personal vehicle — for city business, I will be compensated, whether it be based on federal mileage at 65 cents per mile through the IRS.”

The Facts
By CYNTHIA ZELAYA cynthia.zelaya@thefacts.com
September 15, 2023

SWEENY — Lindsay Koskiniemi believes Sweeny City Council in effect cut her pay when it stripped her car allowance from the 2023-24 budget, a move she views as unfair and unjust.

Councilman John Rambo made a motion to cut the city manager’s stipend as part of an item on the Sept. 6 agenda in which members can call for changes to the proposed budget before its adoption. Councilman Brian Brooks seconded the motion, and Councilman Mark Morgan provided the third vote for the motion to pass.

Councilmen Reese Cook, Koskiniemi’s predecessor as city manager, and Tim Pettigrew voted against removing the car allowance.

“There was really nothing controversial on the agenda whatsoever,” Koskinemi said. “We got to the very last item, and I told council this is only in here because we’re having our public hearing to adopt the budget and to adopt the tax rate, so I want it fresh on your mind.”

At this point, Koskiniemi said, Rambo looked at the council and said, “I make a motion we cut the city manager’s car allowance.”

The city agreed to the $400-a-month allowance when it hired Koskiniemi as city manager along with her $95,000 annual salary. Koskiniemi is believed to be the first Sweeny city manager to receive a car allowance.

Rambo did not respond to multiple messages left on his personal phone, at city hall, and sent via text and email.

During the meeting, Rambo said the reason for initiating the motion boiled down to seeing no need for change in Sweeny if it is based on what other cities are doing.

“We gotta stop looking at other cities and comparing us to other cities, because if you’re going to start doing that, I’m going to say, ‘Well if they’re doing this, I’m doing that,’” Rambo said. “Before last year, we were the only city that didn’t, and we were OK for 60 years, before last year. Apparently we were the only city around here that didn’t supply (a car allowance), and I think with Reese and everybody before him, we did OK. And we didn’t have somebody saying, ‘Well if every other city does this, we need to do it.’”

Cook told The Facts via email this week that a vehicle allowance was the most financially responsible choice for the city.

“I voted against the motion to remove the stipend when it was presented because I felt the allowance, as it was proposed, was an acceptable expense in our annual budget,” Cook wrote. “I believe that it provides a fairly standard benefit for a city manager, as well as being more financially advantageous to the city versus alternatives of mileage reimbursement, a leased vehicle program, or even the purchase and payment of a new city-issued vehicle.”

Asked for the reason he supported the motion, Morgan said in an email this week he was under the impression when Koskiniemi was hired it was only temporary.

“When we initially approved the vehicle stipend, it was my opinion it would not be an ongoing expense,” Morgan wrote. “For that reason, when it came up in this year’s budget, I didn’t think the vehicle stipend was necessary and believe that’s how my constituents also felt.”

Attempts to reach Brooks and Pettigrew for comment via phone and email also were unsuccessful.

Mayor Dusty Hopkins did not vote on the motion and did not take sides on the issue.

“I just wanted to keep the meeting focused on and around the budget, to move forward with the budget process so we could get that finalized and approved, and we can hopefully get our tax rates. That was my main priority of the meeting,” Hopkins said. “But there was a few council members that went over the budget line item by line item. And we’ve already discussed it a few times, and they just felt it was necessary they removed that vehicle stipend, and ultimately had the votes to get that done.”

The topic of the city manager’s car allowance had been brought up in prior meetings as a point of contention, particularly during budget meetings, Hopkins said.

“The only reason that was stated in the meeting by one council member was they never got paid to drive to work themselves,” Hopkins said. “They didn’t get into elaborate details of why they wanted to remove it. I can say without any bias some of our council members believe, ‘We have never paid it before. Why should we pay it now?’”

Council’s job is to act in the best interest of their constituents when deciding how to use their money, Hopkins said.

Clute, Angleton and Freeport provide their city managers with a $600 monthly vehicle allowance to offset the expense of using their personal vehicle for city business, such as out-of-town trips to meetings and conferences. The lower end of the allowances includes Brazoria at $200, while Lake Jackson provides $750.

Koskiniemi does not have a contract but negotiated her employment terms with then-Mayor Jeff Farley. Those terms, which took effect Oct. 1, 2022, provided a vehicle allowance of $400 per month and a phone allowance of $60 per month, as well as a health insurance package.

Koskiniemi said council members never discussed an alternative to a vehicle allowance with her, such as providing her with a city vehicle or reimbursing her for mileage. According to the Sweeny city budget, leasing a city vehicle from Enterprise would cost $10,600 per year, making her request for $4,800 per year in allowance a cost-effective option for the city, she said.

Since becoming Sweeny’s top administrator, the city is projected to bring in $215,000 in additional revenue because of her management decisions, Koskinimemi said, including revised investment policy and moving city funds to an interest-bearing checking account.

Cynthia Zelaya is a reporter for The Facts. Contact her at 979-237-0151.