With Colorado Springs Utilities facing huge revenue shortfalls triggered by forecasting blunders, the City Council deadlocked on giving the city-owned agency’s CEO Jerry Forte a 1.25 percent raise this year.The motion to increase Forte’s annual pay by $3,459, failed on a 4-4 vote, with Mayor Lionel Rivera absent.The council earlier approved raises for three other appointees, over the objections of Councilmen Darryl Glenn and Tom Gallagher.”Utilities is in a state of turmoil,” Councilman Scott Hente said after the vote. “It sends the wrong message.”Hente, Glenn, Gallagher and Jerry Heimlicher voted to deny Forte a raise.Utilities faces a $44.6 million revenue shortfall this year due largely to lower water usage and a plunge in utility hookups because of the housing slowdown. A water-rate increase is likely in August.”He’s very well-compensated,” Heimlicher said of Forte after opposing the raise.Forte’s $276,750 base salary as chief executive of the city-owned utility would have been increased to $280,209 if the raise had been approved.Unlike other council appointees, Forte receives extra pay each year through Utilities’ pay-for-performance program. He received $28,505 in April.He also gets long-term incentive pay, which has totaled about $87,000 since 2006. This year’s payment was $28,228.Forte’s last raise of 2.5 percent came in 2007.The proposed raise for Forte and the other appointees weren’t merit increases but rather were designed to keep their pay at a competitive rate with comparable jobs.City Attorney Pat Kelly’s pay went up by 5.5 percent, raising her salary to $167,033 a year; City Auditor Jeff Litchfield received a 5 percent hike to $128,397, and City Clerk Kathryn Young got 1 percent, to $112,486.”I feel very uncomfortable with any market adjustments,” Glenn said. “I feel our executives are making a very competitive wage. It  sends the wrong message to adjust this right now.”Gallagher said, “I know a dozen people who have taken pay cuts just so they can keep 40 hours. It’s just not the right time.”The raises, which take effect July 1, the same date as a pay hike for the city’s 92 managers, total $260,000.”I’m not willing to take punitive action against our employees for conditions that are beyond their control,” Vice Mayor Larry Small said, noting the city has already delayed manager raises for six months while other employees got market adjustment raises in January.He also said studies show salaries have risen in the Pikes Peak region in the past year, despite the economic slump.Councilwoman Margaret Radford called the appointees’ raises “overdue and pretty small,” considering they’re asked to do “more, more, more with less, less, less.” Councilwoman Jan Martin agreed.Although Heimlicher, Glenn and Gallagher pushed to consider withholding all managers’ pay hikes, there wasn’t  time to decide the issue before the effective date, and Heimlicher said the council wasn’t apt to rescind raises.Also, the three didn’t think a majority would vote against raises.Heimlicher said the council should have gotten a financial forecast earlier so raises could have been revisited. That report came Monday when finance officials forecast a $5 million shortfall this year.Councilman Randy Purvis said while “everything is on the table” for future budgets, the council should stick with its 2008 spending plan and give the raises. “It’s a matter of following through with what you said you were going to do,” he said.Kelly, Litchfield and Young last got raises of 2.5 percent, the same as other managers, in February 2007 following performance evaluations.

Nic Sutton (15) leads Rob Wilkerson (17) into turn four during a Colorado 1200 Outlaws race at the El Paso County Speedway in Calhan Saturday, June 21, 2008. Photo by The Gazette, Kevin Kreck

KEVIN KRECK