WEST JORDAN — The West Jordan City Council today will consider renewing the city manager's annual bonus of nearly $17,000 — a deal some residents see as excessive.

The amendment to the city manager's contract would extend a yearly 10 percent bonus through 2009. Current City Manager Gary Luebbers, whose salary of more than $167,000 is the highest among the state's city managers, said he has been receiving the bonus since he was hired six years ago.

The bonus caught residents' attention this month because it is set to expire unless it is reinstated through the amendment. The amendment is being sponsored by Councilman Kim Rolfe. It refers to a recent employee assessment that found Luebbers' performance deserving of the money.

"It's very gratifying that they're interested in doing that," Luebbers said.

But the issue has sparked a lot of discussion on a residents' e-mail forum on Yahoo! Groups.

"A city manager who does not feel appreciated may not be willing to stick around," resident Jennifer Scott wrote. "But I don't understand why it doesn't constitute 'appreciation' that we pay him the highest salary of any city manager in the state of Utah. He does a lot of things very well, but he is already compensated extremely well for his abilities."

Councilwoman Melissa Johnson wrote on the Yahoo! forum that the proposed "bonus" is actually part of the city manager's salary. A previous council increased the city manager's compensation but classified the raise as a bonus to avoid having to pay additional retirement bene- fits.

Failing to renew Luebbers' bonus this year, she worries, would be akin to giving him a pay cut and would send the message that his work has been substandard.

But Councilman Mike Kellermeyer believes that type of argument is just semantics and that a lower salary would not be enough to drive Luebbers to find another job. "Bonus, salary whatever — $193,719 for Utah should be ample," he wrote.

In other business on the council's agenda today:

• The council will consider a resolution that would call on the state Legislature to allow a portion of impact fees to go toward funding school districts. Impact fees are paid by developers and are to be used by cities to cover infrastructure that would be impacted by new development, such as roads and utility lines.

Luebbers said this resolution is based on "exactly the same theory that schools are a piece of infrastructure that will be impacted by development."

The idea, he said, is to shift some of the burden for funding schools away from established areas and toward new growth that drives the need for new schools. It comes at a time when a number of east-side cities are considering forming their own school districts, partially so their residents don't have to pay to build schools for west-side growth. Luebbers said that if the east-side districts are formed, existing west-side residents would bear an even greater burden of the cost of new schools. Impact fees could alleviate that.

Currently, school districts are funded by property taxes. Luebbers said other states allow impact fees to be used for schools.

• Plans will be presented for the city's dog park, which is being built with a $400,000 grant from Salt Lake County. The city decided to build the park largely in response to residents who wanted to ease the burden on Taylorsville's Millrace Park, the valley's only west-side off-leash dog park. That park has become heavily used, and Taylorsville has begun to assess a fee for non-resident use.

The council meets today at 6 p.m. at 8000 S. Redwood Road.

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