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.)