Danvers Town Manager 3.5% Raise In New 5-Year Deal, To Make $220K In 2024

DANVERS, MA — A new, five-year contract extension for Danvers Town Manager Steve Bartha will include the equivalent of a 3.5 percent annual raise and pay Bartha a $219,914 in 2024 following unanimous action of the Select Board on Tuesday night.

The Board met in executive session prior to Tuesday's open meeting and voted to approve the new deal for Bartha, who became the town manager in 2014.

Board members said the raise is consistent with cost-of-living increases for other non-union town employees and keeps the town competitive with other similar communities on the North Shore.

Bartha's new deal runs through 2029.

Select Board member Gardner Trask said the compensation is fair not only in comparison with other municipal leaders but also in relation to equivalent employment opportunities in the private sector.

"We don't seek to race to the bottom (in pay scale)," Trask said. "We are not looking to have people, and we will not retain people, if we are in the 25th percentile, 40th percentile (in pay scale). People are driven by many reasons (in their careers) but money is often one of the larger factors."

Trask said the new deal moves Bartha from being in the 30th percentile for pay in comparable communities to "just over midpoint" or "slightly above the median."

"We want to retain people and one of the best ways to retain people is to pay them fairly and well," Trask said. "Not extravagantly — I don't consider this to be an extravagant raise. And I want to retain him for another five years."

Select Board member Maureen Bernard indicated she pushed back a bit against those who wanted a bigger pay increase but that ultimately she supported the new market-rate contract for Bartha.

"Steve has been underpaid," Bernard said. "With (this new deal) he has gone into the 60th percentile where some of my other Board members said to me that if I didn't go along with this they might push him into the 75th, which I don't agree with. But, despite the rough times, I feel the town manager does do a lot of work. He puts a lot of effort into this town.

"I think it's a fair increase so I will go with it."

Bartha thanked the Select Board for the new contract and said he is looking forward to serving the town's residents for five additional years.

"By the end of this contract I will have spent half of my career in support of this community," Bartha said, "which is the community my family calls home. I enjoy the work here. I enjoy the people that I work with. And the elected and appointed officials that we serve.

"I am proud of the work that we've accomplished over the past nine years and I am excited about the work that we are doing now, and the work to come."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)