By Linda Scott
Watertown Resident
And If Comparisons Were Made (A Quick Comparison of Administrator Salaries for 37 Massachusetts Cities and Towns)
This is a followup to “Answers and Questions about City Manager’s New Contract”
I received quite an array of comments to my letter, “Answers and Questions,” but one very simple response got me thinking. One resident said quite simply when referring to Mr. Proakis’ new salary, “That’s too much.”
I thought, is it? We were told that this “compensation package” fell within the range of other administrators from other municipalities. It was in the middle of the pack. I thought that I’d put that remark to the test. Then you can be the judge.
It has taken a while to gather information and to wait for various communities to pass their 2027 city budgets. Unfortunately, some communities are still struggling with the process.
Some of you may remember the Classification and Compensation Study the City of Watertown commissioned and was completed in February of 2024. It was quite expensive, and it’d be a shame to use it just once (that’s my “Scottish” coming out).
First, here’s a link to that study: https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=86196&repo=r-5ece562
It compared 15 cities and towns to Watertown for the purposes of making sure that our City jobs and their compensation were both fair and competitive. This study lead to significant non-union employee pay raises. There were criteria selected for inclusion in the comparison group.
Below are some quotes from the study:
“Nine (9) factors were used for the evaluation of Watertown’s positions:
1) Preparation and Training
2) Experience Required
3) Decision Making and Independent Judgment
4) Responsibility for Policy Development
5) Planning of Work
6) Contact with Others
7) Work of Others (Supervision Exercised)
8) Working Conditions
9) Use of Technology/Specialized Equipment”
“To be determined a comparable community, a community needed to 1) fall within the relevant
range on all nine criteria and 2) be within 20 miles of Watertown.”
“The next component of the Classification and Compensation Study involved establishing external competitiveness. A group of communities comparable to the City was established. The Consultants started with Massachusetts communities in Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk Counties. After that, a specific set of comparison criteria was applied to each community. The
City Manager’s Office added two additional criteria to the comparable community analysis – population density and commercial, industrial, and personal property (CIP) assessed value – to better reflect the complexity of our work in Watertown.”
Below is that list of comparable communities. I’ve ascertained the base salary for each Mayor, City Manager or City Administrator for comparison of base salaries. Why just the base salary? Because what is added on to the base is as varied as the administrators themselves. The one constant is the base salary. So let’s start comparing.
These are the cities that were chosen by the study for comparison to Watertown: Arlington, Braintree, Brookline, Burlington, Dedham, Medford, Natick, Needham, Newton, Norwood, Saugus, Somerville, Wakefield, Waltham, Woburn.
Here’s a chart of where the different administrators fall on base salary for Fiscal Year 2027, going highest to lowest. Watertown’s fiscal year 2027 starts on July 1st of 2026 and ends on June 30th of 2027. Assume all salaries are for the FY 2027 budget. Whenever the base salary listed is for Fiscal Year 2026, not 2027, I’ll note it.
Comparison of Cities and Towns in Compensation Study
(Highest to Lowest Administrator Salary)
Watertown Ranking (1 being highest, 16 being lowest): Population: 10 out of 16. Area: 16 out of 16; City Manager Salary: 2 out of 16
And, Another Way to Look at This:
I was reminded that the above cities and towns, although used for comparison salary-wise do not all share the same form of government, and that can determine administrator salaries. For instance, in Waltham, the mayor’s salary is determined by Sec. 2-75.4 of the Waltham City Code. It was explained to me that this ordinance stipulates that the Mayor’s compensation is adjusted annually based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) Boston, Massachusetts. I decided, fair enough, so I went back to compare only those cities with the same form of government.
According to the Mass Municipal Association, there are 12 cities and towns that meet that criteria:
“Twelve communities in Massachusetts have a city form of government (a City/Town Council), but do not have a Mayor; they have a city (or “town”) manager as their chief administrative officer.”
Here’s another table that uses form of government, as defined by the Mass Municipal Association, as the criteria, from highest to lowest base salary:
Comparison of Cities and Towns by Same Form of Government
(Highest to Lowest Administrator Salary)
Watertown Ranking (1 being highest and 12 being lowest): Population: 4 out of 12. Area: 10 out of 12. City Manager Salary: 2 out of 12
It’s getting harder and harder to think that our City Manager’s salary is in the middle of the pack. Maybe our City Council considered “the big boys and girls” in their calculation? Here are the 10 biggest cities in the Commonwealth (with Watertown included for comparison), ranked highest to lowest by administrator’s base salary:
Comparison of the 10 Biggest Massachusetts Cities Administrator Salaries (Plus Watertown)
(Highest to Lowest Administrator Salary)
Watertown Ranking (1 being highest and 11 being lowest): Population: 11 out of 11. Area: 11 out of 11 City Manager Salary: 4 out of 11. Watertown comes in last in both population and area and comes in at fourth place in Administrator salary, above the mayor of Boston! (Boston Population: 671,635; Watertown Population: 35,710)
So, ranked by Compensation Study and form of government, Watertown’s City Manager’s base salary comes in second, and by largest Cities in the Commonwealth, Watertown’s City Manager’s base salary comes in fourth.
As I mentioned in the beginning, base salary is just the common ground that they all start at. I’ve noticed in various Administrator contracts there are extras like getting the use of a city car, for example. One town administrator, in addition to the base salary, gets $11,100/year in deferred compensation. Our city manager, in addition to his base salary, will get $15,000/year in deferred compensation in his new contract. (For a complete picture of the Proakis contract, see the Watertown News letter link in the first paragraph and go to the end).
As with all numbers, there are a variety of ways to interpret this survey data and many more questions that could be asked. For instance, how do these administrators’ job descriptions compare? (Although I’d imagine in just sheer volume and complexity of work, the mayor of Boston would have most other communities beat, never mind Watertown). I welcome others to add to our knowledge.
So, you be the judge. Is the salary agreement that our City Council entered into with our City Manager in the middle of the pack? Is it too much, too little? Or is it just right?
Lastly, I’d like to extend my personal thanks to all of the Massachusetts city and town employees who helped me to collect the data for these surveys … all of the city clerks, human resource people, town treasurers, payroll personnel, city administrators and their executive assistants, who efficiently filled my requests for information and went above and beyond to be as accurate, transparent and helpful as possible. You are great examples of what public employees should be!
It might also be interesting and informative to compare the number of new hires and new positions created under this administration vs prior ones.
Hi Robert,
I think that you bring up an interesting point. I refer you to this letter in Watertown News from Angie Kounelis: https://www.watertownmanews.com/2025/04/01/letter-ambulance-public-safety-should-be-a-priority-in-new-city-positions/ to start to see the numbers under the George Proakis City Managership. There may be more.
In fact, I know that there are a few more, because Mr. Proakis was putting off fully funding a second, really needed, City ambulance. It took the public and the City Council to overrule him and to get this done.
What would also be interesting is to categorize the types of jobs that have been created…how many of them directly serve the people of Watertown, and how many form backup and new administrative functions, for instance.
Thanks for finding all these comparisons. But it only shows me that his salary is within the rate for surrounding towns. I think it’s silly to nickel and dime it. Ten years ago, the complaint was that the government was an old boys club and there was no transparency. The website was a joke-you couldn’t find anything. Trying to locate the paperwork before a meeting was impossible. We’ve come a long way. Watertown faces a lot of development pressure still, and with the MBTA Communities Act, a lot of changes ahead. I think Proakis is smart and engaged with the public in ways we’ve never had before and knows how to communicate. I’m also glad he’s grown City Hall. We were woefully understaffed. Yes, we are not as big as Cambridge, but we face many of the same issues. Doesn’t mean we have to agree with everything, but let’s be reasonable. By the way, my taxes, in an owner occupied condo, are half what they were 2 years ago. So I’m not sure why the perception of overspending.
Hi Marcia,
No quibble with your assessment of George Proakis…he is very smart.
I’m afraid I know a lot of people who don’t share your opinion and have had a very different experience with the website.
Perhaps you haven’t been following the tax situation…thanks to Councilors Izzo and Airasian, a home rule petition was filed and passed so that homeowners and businesses share the tax burden equally. That’s what you’ve been experiencing, tax-wise. That is about to end, and if a new Home Rule Petition isn’t passed, Watertown property owners’ taxes will go up 18% or more. I think it still needs to pass the Senate. That is no certainty. You and all of the rest of Watertown’s property owners will be shouldering the burden of 61% of the taxes, not 50%. Businesses will pay the rest (39%).
Also, condos got off pretty easily in Watertown’s property re-evaluation. Some of Watertown’s smallest houses were hit with 20% hikes!
As for transparency, you just have to look at how our City Manager originally handled the Flock camera situation to see non-transparency at work.
Thanks for sharing your opinions in all of these matters!
Thank you for the extensive thought and leg work involved in such an investigation.
In my opinion the base salary with all the add-ons are way out of line with other workers salaries. It is similar to the obscene divide between CEO pay and worker pays in the corporate world. In the future I would like to see a correlation between working staff and leadership.
Watertown seems to be more focused on money and squeezing in more people than actual improvements to the local environment. Take for example the removal of the Dam.
The dam on the Charles river is an attraction for people, Great blue Herons and other birds. But they want to remove it all for what, they say it’s for some small fish that can’t swim up the fish ladder. So they are going to spend millions of dollars for a small fish and the birds don’t count. Probably to line the same incompetent contractors who built that ugly bridge a few years back. Remember the bridge monstrosity they built? It was years over due and millions over budget for an ugly eyesore. Now the bridge will be even more out of place. Another waste of money.
Hi David,
In my “legwork” I ran across one city leader who has written in his contract that his salary must always be $10,000 more than any other city employee! That was a new one for me!
I agree with you on what seem to be the City’s aims: growth with very little attention to what comes with it. Let me meander some more…how do we put money into a new (and needed) ambulance to speed up emergency services AND support road narrowing to slow traffic down? Aren’t those contradictory ideas?
Add to that the potentially dangerous new steps toward eliminating the winter parking ban, and zoning rules that require new apartment buildings to have only enough parking for half of the apartments, leaving surplus cars on the street, and you’ve got a disaster waiting to happen!
I attended a zoom meeting sponsored by the Boston Foundation this month. It was about ways to create more affordable housing. The two major strategies that were mentioned was getting more square footage in houses by eliminating a need for builders to build their structure set back so many feet from the street. They also mentioned narrowing streets. The other way was to get more affordable square footage in houses by eliminating the zoning requirement for a second egress and sprinklers in larger unit buildings.
They had, in my opinion, some strange math. According to them:
Mostly old people die in fires. Mostly young people die in car accidents. Narrowing the streets, etc. combined with lessening fire protections may endanger more old folks, but they had fewer years to live. Narrowing streets could slow traffic down and save young lives that would potentially live for many more years. Ergo, we’d be saving many more years of lives. You can’t make this stuff up!
I think Mr. Proakis’ salary is appropriate and it’s a normal professional-level salary for the responsibility he holds. He has done a great job in Watertown. He communicates with various stakeholders transparently and effectively. He puts up with a lot of #$%^ from loud, rude residents. Our budget is under control, we’ve built modern schools and our property taxes are the lowest in our area. Things “work” around here…. well… except the street paving on Arsenal St near the Square. People who reflexively say he earns “too much” are probably the ones who don’t understand a world where people develop themselves and their professional skills over many years, and this enables them to perform at increasing levels of complexity.
Hi Kathy,
Your opinion is duly noted.
Watertown has a well-qualified City Manager who is paid commensurate to his experience and his responsibilities. He will always have supporters and distractors.
Well put, Paul. Question: Are all of these other city leaders not as well qualified or as effective? In comparison with them, is our City Manager that much more capable? Just playing devil’s advocate.
Who is claiming they are or they are not? Communities set their own compensation for municipal CEOs based on a variety of factors. The focus solely on the City Manager’s salary seems to be driven more by disagreement with his performance or policy focus, which is ultimately determined by the City Council.
I think that you’ve touched upon the heart of the matter, Paul. Communities do use factors to determine compensation. Our City Council’s factors and standards are unclear. At the meeting that this contract was voted upon, there was no review of the standards and how our manager met and/or exceeded them. As I was reviewing for this Op-Ed, I found lots of examples of contracts being agreed upon in other communities where there was a clear explanation of how this decision was reached. None of that occurred in Watertown.
Super important point @Linda Scott! There should be a rubric to evaluate the performance(and not one so ambiguous that you could always make things look rosie or bleak). Possibly there is a rubric but we do not know about it? Devils always in the details…good work! Thank you!
In a time when we need to be cognizant of what we are spending, I think this information is very timely. We need to review and control all expenses that we can. So I agree that it is appropriate to see what our top management people make, including the City Manager, and compare these salaries to other cities and towns.
If we are not asking questions and looking for transparency, we will not understand what is going on, especially costs that could have significant effects on taxes and what priorities are determined for our city. In the role as City Manager, Mr. Proakis has a lot of responsibility and also needs to understand the will of the people and not just make decisions HE FEELS are good for our community, especially if a large amount of people disagree with his ideas and goals.
Everyone needs to do their job to the best of their abilities and do whatever homework is needed so that correct decisions are made by our Councilors on any major decisions, whether it be appointments to offices or expenses related to those appointments.
Going forward I hope there will be more transparency on how salaries are arrived at and the investigations and comparisons done to determine them.
Thanks, Joan.
Transparency and community discourse are the keys here. There’s a reason why all of this data is available for citizens to peruse. I agree that we need to be active participants in our democracy.
“If democracy is to survive, it requires not merely that we choose those who govern or vote in episodic elections; it requires that we engage regularly and permanently in political discourse…” Benjamin R. Barber in Strong Democracy.
Back in May of 2025, we exchanged comments here on the value vs. cost of a Human Services Director. I don’t care to bring that up again, as the council made their decision, and I don’t intend to disparage Ms. Bancroft, who I have no doubt is exceeding expectations.
But value vs. cost is even more vital today. There was talk last year of a Human Services Cabinet and a DEI Director, at least the latter of which will cost something. I haven’t read anything about that position lately. Has the city concluded that any potential value is not worth the certain cost? I read vehement defense of that position last year, so I hope that those who supported it will be notified of its cancellation.
My position remains unchanged: more services for citizens.
Services for citizens (for all who live in and visit the community, actually) require personnel to lead and direct and provide said services. That includes people in leadership roles to provide effective, efficient, and responsive programming. That isn’t free in government or anywhere else.
Hi Josh,
I’m afraid that I can’t update you on the DEI Director position. Perhaps someone else has that information?
As for “value vs. cost” being vital in these turbulent, lean times, in one of the 2027 budgets that I studied for this op-ed, they had written a JFK quote: “The time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining.” I interpret that to mean take advantage of the good economic times to batten down the hatches for the stormy times to come.
I’m the one who simply said “That’s too much”. To clarify, I am 65 and living on a fixed income and can only afford rent with a section 8 voucher. If I compare my work and educational experience to anyone; a BA and tech school and 20 plus years of manufacturing, a salary above 70,000.00 a year for anyone seems like too much. It’s a matter of perspective. Given your research, the salary does make sense. Thank you for clarifying.
Do you think the CEO of an organization with a $250 million annual budget should make $70K a year?
Paul,
I think that you misread Whitney’s comment. I think that he said quite the opposite.
You are correct. Apologies Whitney.
Thank you, Whitney, for sending me on that journey. Every time I take on a project, I feel that I learn more about how things work (and don’t work)…an adventure in “life-long learning”!
I understand where you’re coming from on this.