Tracy Noonan City Attorney After six months on the job, Simi Valley City Attorney Tracy Noonan is getting a 6 percent raise.

Mayor Paul Miller said Noonan deserves it.

“She’s been here six months and basically turned that office around,” he said. “I’m very happy with the work that she’s done.”

The City Council adopted a resolution Monday approving the raise, which will go into effect retroactively to Aug. 31. Already the secondbiggest earner at city hall—behind City Manager Mike Sedell—Noonan’s raise bumps up her annual pay by more than $10,000.

Now her salary, not including benefits, is about $192,000.

Along with her salary increase, Noonan will receive a $400 monthly vehicle allowance.

In February, Noonan replaced David Hirsch, who retired after serving as city attorney for 10 years. Before coming to the city, Noonan served for four years as an assistant city attorney for Thousand Oaks.

All new city employees receive a performance review after the first six months of employment and annually thereafter. The City Council reviewed Noonan’s work thus far during a closed-session meeting Aug. 31.

Because she hadn’t worked as a city attorney before, Noonan had to prove herself to the council, according to Miller and Sedell. She was brought on at a salary lower than that of other city attorneys with the understanding that the council would reassess her compensation after six months on the job.

“When we hired her, we brought her in lower and that was to give her room to move, and I feel (the raise) is not unreasonable,” Miller said. “She’s worth it. She could probably go somewhere else and make more money.”

Sedell echoed the mayor’s praise, saying the raise is based on merit and that Noonan has proved her value to the organization.

“I think the entire council is very pleased with the job she’s done, the ability she’s shown to work legal issues the city has encountered,” he said. “She’s saved the city tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal costs.”

For management employees, 6 percent is considered an “exceptional” increase, Sedell said. He noted, however, that it’s still within the framework of the city’s policy for merit increases. Job performances rated as “exceeds expectations” are eligible for a 5 to 6 percent increase, he said.

“Generally, a 6 percent merit increase is reflective of service above and beyond the call of duty,” he said. “So it’s not the norm, it’s definitely for an exemplary level of service and that’s what the council thought Tracy performed at.”

Noonan’s pay is now more in line with what other city attorneys in communities of similar size are paid, Sedell said.

Though Noonan’s contract calls for a review in December, the next review will not be conducted until December 2010, meaning that she will not be up for another raise for a year and a half.

Still, both Miller and Sedell acknowledged that the raise could fuel tensions with the Police Officers Association (POA), with whom the city has been in contract negotiations over pay and benefits for several months.

“The two are not related, but you know what? If somebody is deserving of the raise, they should get it. We feel that if people have a problem with it, we can defend it very well,” Miller said.

Detective Bill Daniels, president of the police union, told the Acorn that he’d requested specific details from the city on Noonan’s new contract.

“On face value, without having the specific facts, it seems a little odd that you’re going after all the different employee groups and asking for all these concessions and a plethora of other things, but on the other hand we are giving salary increases and other benefits to employees that have been here six months,” Daniels said.

Sedell said Noonan is not being treated differently from any other employee and that no city workers not already at the top of their pay range—including police officers— have been denied their merit increases due to the cutbacks.

“There’s no special treatment at all,” he said. “All the police officers are getting their merit raises, just like her. It’s no different.”