Hi All,
I read the agenda for last night’s City Council meeting. As I went to the City website and clicked on the City Council agenda, it “beach balled” forever!
Thinking that it was my problem, I tried to open other agendas for that evening and found that this did not happen on any of the other agendas. I called 311, and they could not replicate the problem. (By the way, at the City Council meeting later in the day, I saw that Council President Sideris was having a similar problem).
On this agenda, when I found a workaround solution myself, something stood out. Last night was the night that the Watertown City Council was to vote on George Proakis’ new “pay package.” It’s a package, because there’s so much more than a straightforward paycheck involved these
days.
The whole document attached to the agenda is 428 pages, but you can find the City Manager’s contract on pages 22 through 26. It includes things like:
A salary of $255,668 starting in August 2026. (Up to $267,173 in August 2027). That does not include the $4,000 car allowance (he drives an EV) and a deferred compensation amount paid by the City of $15,000/year. In my calculation, that brings the City Manager’s salary up to $274,668.
Add to that health insurance ($25,000/a year or more, I believe), a City contribution of $3,000/year for long term care insurance, a budget for food, travel, lodging and fees for conferences and memberships in associations. (That amount was not specified, but can get quite pricy).
He gets 25 vacation days a year, plus the usual 15 sick days. There’s an agreement that if, for some reason, we should ask George to leave, he gets a full year’s salary. He gives us 90 days’ notice if he plans to leave. In the interest of transparency, I’ve attached the full document (minus the signature page) at the end of this letter.
Speaking of the City and travel, have you noticed how many pictures are taken lately of George in a Watertown City location? Compare that to the number of photos taken of George at the Statehouse and/or with State politicians.
With all of this information and the money involved, we aren’t even privy to the blank evaluation sheet that individual councilors use and their responses to see on what basis George was judged.
And it appeared from the agenda that the Watertown public would not be able to comment until after the City Council deliberated and voted on his new salary agreement. We comment, not knowing the criteria for judging and after the vote is taken. Doesn’t that sound backward to you?
Fortunately, Council President Sideris switched the order and asked for public comments and questions before their vote.
I was the only resident who asked a question (actually three):
- Why can’t the public see the blank evaluation form to see what standards our CM is being held to?
- Why can’t we get a sense of how our City Councilors have done this job, in essence, to be able to evaluate them? (For instance, did every councilor take the time to fill in the evaluation? No employee is perfect. What were the areas of strength and the areas of needs improvement that our City Councilors identified for our City Manager?)
- Finally, there is mention that the City Manager is not in a Union, and since he’s not, for parity’s sake, he’ll be given an extra 2%, a bonus above his 2.5%, if you will. That means that the City Manager just got a 4.5% raise. I asked if all of the other non-union employees in the City got this same consideration. The answer to that was unclear.
So, even though I am not a City Councilor (I’ve seen the job … argh! Thank you to those who take on this responsibility!), I’d just like to touch on a few observations that I’ve been able to make in the last few years.
I’d like to point out one change that George has aggressively made in Watertown that is quite unnerving to many residents and could make affording to live in Watertown impossible for current residents with lower incomes. Since his arrival in August of 2022, George has worked tirelessly to expand our City’s bureaucracy, not just to fill vacancies, but to create many new administrative positions.
For instance, Mike Driscoll had one assistant (besides his two administrative people), an Assistant City Manager of Community Development and Planning. George has added four more: a Deputy City Manager (new position), and he’s moved three positions (some new and created by him) under his direct control and as support for his work: a grants writer, a digital communications specialist, and a community engagement specialist.
These support positions for our City Manager conservatively add up to about $550,000/year, without insurance and other benefits. Note: George is down to one administrative assistant in his office, but he supplements that person with the two new 311 employees across the hall.
See retired East End City Councilor Angie Kounelis’ letter in Watertown News to review just the beginnings of our ballooning payroll under Mr. Proakis: https://www.watertownmanews.com/2025/04/01/letter-ambulance-public-safety-should-be-a-priority-in-new-city-positions/
Perhaps it’s what George was used to in Lowell (a city more than three times Watertown’s size in population) and Somerville (a city more than two times Watertown’s size in population) that brought these changes to Watertown, a City whose population has stayed stable for decades … possibly because we’ve been attracting more singles than families in recent years?
Whatever the cause, ironically, the more personnel that citizens are paying for with their taxes, the less ability the citizenry has to actually reach staff that they need to speak with. Funny how that works.
As noted above, 311, although quite helpful with some things, isn’t always capable of helping and effectively places one more layer of bureaucracy between us and Watertown staff.
Thanks to George, the word “gatekeeper” is alive and well in Watertown, a community that was known for years and has prided itself as a place where personal communications was the coin of the realm.
Yes, last night there was a unanimous City Council vote to fund George’s new contract. This process produced neither heat nor light. There was mention about how hard it is to get good people, but no one raised their hand to sing our City Manager’s praises. That would have been a nice, reassuring touch as well as seeing a Watertown City Councilor verbally committing out loud to why they made their decision.
I hope that residents will look carefully, and I hope that they will hold our City Councilors directly responsible for the decisions that they made last evening and the decisions that Mr. Proakis makes going forward.
Linda Scott
Watertown Resident
(The contract can be seen below. Note, go to bottom to find page scrolling bar.)
Unfortunate that there seems to be less transparency in our city government around how all these decisions are being made and justified.
Hi Maura. Agreed! I think that full transparency combined with careful, consistent procedures for residents to participate would go a long way.
The city manager has indeed crafted some fine bullet points for his resume. Watertown has provided Proakis the opportunity to establish himself as a city manager, whereas when he arrived, he was for all practical purposes a city planner with little administrative fare and experience on his plate. I fully expect him to move on within the next year or so to much greener pastures.
You have predicted this from the beginning with no evidence to support your assertion.
We’ll see, Fred. Looking at his contract, it seems that he has the option of staying put for more than two years…That might be what he needs to effectively turn “Watertown” into “Georgetown,” a place that he can say he “transformed”…whether Watertown residents wanted it or not! Remember…according Jeff Speck (George’s friend and colleague), “We’re the experts.” This could translate into a lot of expensive consulting income for George a few years from now.
Thank you Linda.
I have not read this document yet but am interested in what is the expectations of a managers are and what goals and expectation he has expressed to get this job.
As a person who still works most day I am challenged to keep up with all these details.
I admire your observational and investigative skills.
Thanks, David…I’m retired…that really helps!
I think that you’ll be disappointed when you read this contract. It’s your usual generic contract…no specific goals are listed, and the expectations are that he perform his managerial duties, including ones assigned by the Council.
An update: I just went back to view the last City Council meeting, and when I asked the 2% question…did this apply to all non-union staff…Mark said, “Yes,” but he said it while I was still talking, so I missed it.
George Proakis is one of the most respectful municipal professionals in Massachusetts and Watertown is very lucky to have him.
That’s too much.
As someone who has been active in Watertown for many years, I can wholeheartedly say that the government we have today is eons more transparent and better organized than before Proakis came. I am glad they have finally hired more people. We were ridiculously understaffed for years. There are some really great people working for the city right now. Get to know some of them, you might be glad they are there.
Watertown’s government was essentially an old boys club for many years and not particularly enlightened. Yes, the previous town manager was very good at keeping us in the black, but at the expense of doing things that we needed. I appreciate that we were able to build schools without raising taxes, but I don’t appreciate that the Dept of Development and Community Planning was woefully understaffed at a time when Watertown was experiencing exponential commercial growth. Lots of things were (or weren’t) done that have left us with some cheap developments that have not added much to the city.
Watertown is small, but it has grown, and will keep growing. We need someone who has their finger on contemporary planning techniques and is able to grow the government with the city. I think George Proakis is doing a great job.
Those of you who think there is no transparency – ha – you should have been around 10 years ago. I was one of the people who fought for developer/neighborhood meetings, which were nonexistent. There was no City Council newsletter. The amount of information coming out of City Hall relating to development and other issues was nil. The Town Manager was totally inaccessible and almost never came to public meetings, unless absolutely required. The same vendors were always hired. Geez, the head of the DPW was absent for close to a year but still had the job. Don’t get me started on the website; trying to find anything there was impossible. Believe me, we are leagues ahead of that now.
I find many people don’t bother to sign up for the information that is available and will be automatically sent to them. Please get on the website and discover all the different ways you can stay informed. And if you have a question, just ask.
Yes, it’s better than it was but it should be a lot better than it is.
The former head of the DPW is an excellent example of cronies protecting cronies at taxpayer expense—bad rubbish for certain.
One of his employees told me last year to call 311 as he stood in front of our building and refused my request to do one more thing on the curb “while he was at it.” So, his legacy is alive and well.
In addition to the July Fourth celebration of the country’s 250th birthday, it’s worth noting in the context of the dialogue about government transparency that July Fourth is also the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by President Lyndon Johnson. This statutory right of any person to access federal agency records transformed government transparency. In 1977, Congress overrode a presidential veto to pass amendments which added strict statutory deadlines and penalties, giving the act teeth. Many residents critical of Watertown government’s lack of transparency are increasingly impatient with its loosey-goosey, disorganized, imprecise, and “relaxed” attitude toward strict rules and discipline.