DeKALB – In line with an increase in wages for city of DeKalb employees this year, the DeKalb City Council approved a 2.5% cost of living wage increase for its city manager this week.

The council voted, 8-0, to approve the increase during its Monday meeting at the DeKalb Public Library. No aldermen were absent from the meeting.

DeKalb City Manager Bill Nicklas declined comment on the matter during the open meeting, although Mayor Cohen Barnes said the increase was one that all city staff was awarded for fiscal year 2022.

”And the city manager is our direct report,” Barnes said. “So we need to approve he is awarded the 2.5% cost living adjustment, as well.”

Seventh Ward Alderman Tony Faivre said he appreciates everything Nicklas has done for the city in the past few years especially.

“I absolutely feel like you deserve this increase in pay,” Faivre said to Nicklas.

Barnes said he “agreed 100%” with Faivre and heralded Nicklas’ time as city manager.

“We’re getting off cheap in this process,” Barnes said.

Barnes said he appreciates Nicklas’ diligence and the energy he puts into the work he does.

“So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you,” Barnes said.

Nicklas was hired in late 2018 with a starting salary of $150,000. In January 2019, he took a 30,000 pay cut that brought his salary down to $120,00, city management analyst Scott Zak said in an email Tuesday.

Nicklas’ 2019 pay cut was proposed by himself, as part of a plan later approved by the City Council in late January 2019 to fix a $1.1 million budget shortfall, which also included laying off four department heads in the city.

Zak said the approved 2.5% increase to Nicklas’s salary is effective Jan. 1, 2022.

“In [2020], [Nicklas’] base pay was restored but not increased [to] $150,000,” Zak wrote. “In 2021, his base pay was frozen at $150,000 in line with all management pay being frozen.”