LYNWOOD — In light of city manager salaries being put under a microscope, the Lynwood City Council on Tuesday night ratified City Manager Roger Haley’s three-year contract giving him a 3 to 5 percent pay increase.

Under the agreement, Haley will now forgo the executive management employees annual cost of living adjustments. Any increases Haley is entitled to will be performance based only.

Haley, who makes less than the city managers for Long Beach, Lakewood and Santa Monica, but more than the city managers in South El Monte, Artesia and Bradbury, accepted the City Council’s terms in negotiations last month.

Last year, Haley declined his pay increase during his mid-year performance evaluation, but was criticized for receiving the COLA adjustment a few months later.

“People who have nothing else better to do are always going to criticize people,” said Mayor Maria Santillan. “No one declines a pay raise. It was a sincere act of kindness for him to decline that raise. It is commendable even today, a year later. … Roger deserves the salary he gets. When you compare his pay with the pay of other city managers listed in the Los Angeles Times comparison chart, it’s average … and it’s definitely not … what some city managers are making.”

When he was hired in 2007, Haley inherited the last city manager’s contractual language. In this new amended contract agreement with Haley, the City Council wanted to make it simpler, Santillan said, something that was fine with Haley.

Haley, who also receives a monthly car allowance, said he doesn’t have a problem with the public knowing how much he makes as city manager. Not only does he enjoy working in Lynwood, where he was raised, but he aims to be a part of making Lynwood government as transparent as possible.

In no way, Haley said, is what happened in the city of Bell normal.

“It’s important for the public to understand that the city of Bell’s situation was a complete disgrace, and not what city officials are supposed to be paid,” Haley said. “[And] because of the Bell salary scandal, it’s important for community officials to be as transparent as possible for their community so that they can see that most city officials are not compensated like that.”

Haley, a former business development manager for the city of Long Beach, said he appreciates the City Council’s confidence in him, but reminds them and the public, that he alone does not deserve the credit for moving the city forward.

“This is a team effort,” Haley said. “From the city staff to the City Council, they’ve made significant strides in reducing the budget, in increasing public safety, in reducing crime, and in creating innovative programs that I am particularly proud of, like the art in public places program. … For me, it’s an honor and a privilege to work in this city.”

In Long Beach for four years, Haley worked with a staff of 5,000. In Lynwood, Haley’s staff is a little over 200.

“I have to say that it’s much more rewarding to work in a small city like this,” he said. “Because you have the opportunity to work with every department on a more intimate level.”

Mayor Pro Tem Aide Castro said she didn’t get the chance to discuss the actual negotiations with her fellow council members in closed session since she was absent during that meeting, but said she is happy with Haley’s management style and therefore was happy to renew his contract.

In a written evaluation of Haley’s performance, Castro said she asked Haley to increase communication among staff members and to continue to hold staff members accountable when necessary.

With a positive performance evaluation from council members, and a brand new contract, Haley said he plans to reward council members by giving them 100 percent all the time.

“I always do my best to represent this city,” he said. “I’m going to work on the areas of improvement some of them pointed out in the evaluation in the next year … and I’m going to do my best to reward them by making this city one all could be proud of.”

Former council member Armando Rea calls Haley’s salary an “overrated upper level salary.”

“How do you justify making as much money as the city manager for the city of Long Beach, when that city has the second largest budget in the county,” Rea said. “He’s making more money than the city [manager] of Downey. How do you justify his salary … or the salary of every executive staff member in the city. His senior staff members make more than the city managers of other cities make. How can you justify that when this city doesn’t have shopping centers, doesn’t have auto malls … how? It’s insane.”

There are communities who have a lot more infrastructure, who have a lot bigger population, and are making less then the city manager in Lynwood, Rea said.

“The Bell incident created a wake-up call for local government,” he added. “Every department head in the city makes over six figures … their salaries far outweigh the median income of the blue collar community that Lynwood is. … Their salaries need to be rolled back.”

What’s happening in Bell, is happening in Lynwood, too, Rea said.

Santillan disagrees.

“Maybe we should remind the public of certain council members who were under investigation for their salaries,” she said. “This council makes 10 times less than what previous council members [including Rea] used to get and our city manager makes far less than what the city manager 10 years ago was making.”

People talk about this city’s financial woes as if it was the current council and the current staff and the current city manager who put the city in the financial constraints it’s in now, said Santillan, but maybe “we should roll back time, to see exactly who was doing the mismanagement and where the money went.”

Not only has this City Council had to reduce its budget, but it’s also had to lay off employees, the mayor said, and still the city has been able to accomplish many positive projects.

“Obviously these people aren’t looking around Lynwood,” Santillan said. “Drive around and compare it to how it was 10 to 15 years ago. There are new parks, there are 27 surveillance cameras, the streets are paved, we have the lowest number of homicides in the city in 25 years and we have a balanced budget.”

The city also does not have to deal with costly sweetheart deals that existed in the past, she said. Those days are over, the mayor added.

“If there’s people in this city who don’t think this city manager is doing a good job, maybe they’re not driving around Lynwood, or maybe they forgot how Lynwood used to be 10 years ago.”

The average pay of a city manager in L.A. County is about $209,000 the Times said. Haley’s new three-year contract is worth about $225,000 a year.