Temple City will give its city manager a 6% pay raise and set aside $735,000 to begin repaving its worst streets, decisions the City Council made Wednesday as it kicked off a multiyear road-repair program with funds from a voter-approved sales tax.
The council raised City Manager Bryan Cook’s salary above the 5% staff had recommended, matching the 6% raises that other city employees received over the past two years.
Councilman Vincent Yu proposed the higher figure, noting the city manager had gone without a raise while staff advanced.
“I think it’s only fair that if staff is getting 6% in two years, that, I think our city managers should also get 6% because we have to worry about compaction. If staff keeps rising and and the top is just not moving as fast, pretty soon staff is going to catch up,” Yu said.
City Attorney Greg Murphy calculated the 6% increase to amount to a new annual early of $228,637, or $19,053 a month. The change means the city will appropriate $12,941 in additional salary from the general fund, up from the $10,784 originally proposed.
The raise was part of a fifth amendment to Cook’s employment agreement that also added a supplemental health benefit and raised the city’s deferred compensation match from 1.5% to 4%.
The larger dollar figure on Wednesday’s agenda was the street-pavement item. The council authorized more than $735,000 and the start of design work for the fiscal year 2026-27 Pavement Rehabilitation Project.
Cook reported the city’s pavement condition index score is 80 out of 100 possible points with about 24% of streets in poor or very poor condition.
“Without the passage of Measure TC earlier this year, this program would not be possible,” Cook said. “It is with this program and its funding that you are able to do a multidecade program program that ensures that residential streets will be paved. Every single residential street within the city will be paved within a 15-year time period.”
The work is the first phase of a program made possible by Measure TC, the 0.75% sales tax increase Temple City voters approved in March, raising the total rate to 10.5%.
The initial $735,000 covers plans, specifications, estimates and pavement coring and testing to determine the right treatment for each street. Staff expects to return in February for authorization to advertise and refine the budget, with final consideration in March or April.
Councilman Tom Chavez questioned whether the project could rely on past climate projections, noting recent unseasonable weather.
Cook responded that the project progresses in longer stretches of time so contractors can make field-level decisions.
“We’ve taken a little bit longer of stretches of time to do pavement projects … for that exact reason,” Cook said.
In other business, the council approved a two-year agreement with the Historical Society of Temple City for museum services, authorizing up to $30,000 and a midyear budget adjustment from $12,000 to $15,000.
The AI platform Civilio assisted this report.
