Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009 • LMUD GM gets a $6,800 raise

Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009 edition of the Lassen County Times.

By a narrow 3-2 vote, the Lassen Municipal Utility District Board of Directors gave a more than 4 percent raise to its general manager on Tuesday, July 28.

Ray Luhring, LMUD’s general manager, saw his salary increase from about $148,000 per year to about $155,000 per year, according to Bill Stewart, the publicly owned utility district’s controller.

He said the general manager’s salary would increase by a little more than 4 percent, and the money for the salary increase was already included in the district’s budget. The raise will be retroactive to July 1.

Luhring has been with LMUD about five years, and served as assistant general manager under Frank Cady, the district’s former general manager.

The LMUD board appointed Luhring acting general manager after it fired Cady on Jan. 3, 2008. The board then named him general manager in April 2008.

In a roll call vote, LMUD directors Fred Nagel, Bud Bowden and Richard Vial voted to approve the salary increase. Directors Jay Dow and Wayne Langston voted no.

There was no discussion on the matter from the board members who voted to approve Luhring’s salary increase.

Bowden made the motion for what he characterized as “a salary adjustment.” Vial seconded Bowden’s motion.

“I will not support this salary increase for the same reason I did not support any other management salary increases,” Dow said. “The timing’s not right. The economy’s not right.”

Dow said Luhring’s been on the job a little more than a year and other management personnel had gone longer than that without a raise.

“We’re looking after the benefits of our ratepayers,” Dow said, “and I don’t think we need to be raising salaries at this time.”

“I just want to add one more thing,” Langston said. “I want to make it clear that Mr. Luhring went through a performance evaluation, received a favorable evaluation, one the results may be considered to be conducive of a salary increase. We have to consider it’s not about, ‘Do a great job, get a salary increase.’ It’s about the economy.”

Langston said the board has discussed the issue of management salary increases in depth before, but this time there’s more information.

“I’ve been approached on the street,” Langston said, “and so there’s more to consider than just what kind of job we’re doing, and do we just give a salary (increase) … I hope other board members have talked to ratepayers because no matter how you want to look at it, the ratepayers pay for this.”