New Riverside City Council may reverse contracts OK’d by old council – The Press-Enterprise

Riverside City Attorney Phaedra Norton, left, talks with City Manager Mike Futrell during the Tuesday, April 9, 2024, Riverside City Council meeting. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

The first action of the new Riverside City Council was to potentially reverse a move by the previous one.

Riverside’s outgoing council voted Tuesday, April 9, to extend employment agreements with the city attorney and city manager. But hours later — after three new members were sworn in — the new council decided to reconsider the pacts at a future meeting.

At the council’s afternoon session, a four-year agreement and an annual pay increase of about $49,500 for City Attorney Phaedra Norton won unanimous approval. And a three-year extension for City Manager Mike Futrell’s agreement was approved 6-1.

Councilmember Jim Perry voted no on the latter, saying that Futrell “has met or exceeded all the expectations,” but that he hesitated to offer a three-year contract after just one year.

Several speakers said that their concern was less about Futrell’s and Norton’s performance, and more about the timing of the approval. They questioned whether the incoming council would have voted differently.

Riverside resident Jason Hunter said the public finds it “suspicious” that the items were scheduled for a meeting where the council membership would change, whether or not the timing was coincidental.

“It looks like you’re trying to bind the hands of the future council,” Hunter said, adding that Norton’s raise and increase in benefits looks like “some sort of payoff, either for previous or future favors.”

Councilmember Steve Hemenway, acting as mayor pro tem, countered speakers’ concerns.

“There’s nothing sneaky or nefarious here, irrespective of what people want to say or think,” he said.

“The way this process came about is we do annual reviews, (and) at those reviews, the charter employees can make requests and asks,” and for employees nearing the end of their contract, “decisions have to be made.”

Hemenway said the process had been in the works for a while.

“There was no crystal ball that told us who would be on the council at the time,” he said.

Councilmember Ronaldo Fierro asked: “When does the elected authority of this council change? It changes at 6:15 p.m. tonight.”

Both he and Perry addressed comments that the item was “snuck onto” the agenda.

“This has been public for 12 days,” Perry said, adding that people were given an opportunity to raise concerns.

“For all the controversy that’s somewhat being made here today,” he said, the concern is “not being backed up” by the number of emails the council is seeing.

Futrell began working for Riverside in January 2023 after acting as South San Francisco’s city manager for almost nine years, according to a city news release. His current agreement, which has an annual salary of $350,196 and is set to end in January 2026, would expire in January 2029 under the new agreement.

After working for several other cities, most recently Stockton and Merced, Norton became Riverside’s city attorney on July 20, 2021, a news release states. Her current agreement ends in July of this year, and her current salary is $341,004. Norton’s new contract, if the afternoon vote is not reversed, would expire in July 2028. Her annual compensation would increase by $49,500.

At the meeting’s evening session, Councilmembers Erin Edwards, Fierro and Gaby Plascencia ended their terms. Councilmembers Philip Falcone, Sean Mill and Steven Robillard, who won seats in the March election, were sworn in.

After the ceremony and congratulations, Councilmember Chuck Conder asked that both agreements be reconsidered, saying he had received numerous phone calls from people “blowing up his phone” in the hours since the afternoon session.