MANCHESTER, NH April 25, 2025 – Girard at Large has learned why Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais may be withholding information about his proposed budget from the public. Sources have disclosed that the city has been negotiating with unions whose contracts expire on June 30 to implement recommendations from the recently presented personnel classification and compensation study (PCCS). The negotiations have yielded several tentative agreements which are awaiting ratification votes.
In addition, Girard at Large has learned that Ruais instructed all department heads to submit budgets as if the “Modified Bring to Market” recommendations contained in the PCCS were implemented. Ruais plans to provide those new job classifications and raises to all non-union employees, effective July 1 and to all union employees effective on July 1 if their contract has been ratified by both the union and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA).
Inasmuch as the current personnel classification and compensation system exists as law in the city’s ordinances, this discovery raises several serious questions, including, but not limited to:
- Does the city plan to adopt ordinances to replace the currrent system? If so, when?
- If not, how does it plan to pay people according to the new scheme when the current one is enshrined in city law?
- Will it fund the old system if it provides higher compensation to any employee?
- Will any ordinance changes go through the normal process, which would involve the committees on Human Resources, Bills on Second Reading, and Enrollment giving the public the opportunity to see, understand and comment on the proposed changes?
- Will the Board of Mayor and Aldermen suspend its rules to fast track ratification without the required two week layover for public review?
Note well: Questions 3 and 4 are all the more important given that there are only three regularly scheduled meetings of the BMA between now and the time a budget must, by charter, be adopted.
When the current system, known as “Yager-Decker,” was adopted in the 1998-1999 term, the recommendations were adopted by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen before negotiations commenced with the city’s unions or the changes were made for the non-union employees. Whatever the answers to the preliminary questions above, it is clear that Ruais, with the apparent complicity of at least the majority of the BMA, has secretly pursued implementation of these sizeable pay raises through the budget process. What remains to be seen is whether or not adoption of the budget alone will cause the city to grant the raises.
At the time of publication, Friday April 25, 2025 at 6:00 PM, the agenda for the May 6 meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen was not available on the city’s Web site. Normally, it is published on the Thursday prior to the Tuesday meeting. Girard at Large looked for the agenda to see what, if any, information regarding this matter would be made public. This is unusual and underscores the critical nature of the questions asked above.
In his budget address, Ruais announced he included $7 million in his proposal to fund implementation of the PCCS recommendations, saying that there was a “consensus of the board” in December to do so. He also priased the school board for adopting similarly large pay raises in its last round of contract talks to justify including the raises in his budget.
Ruais has refused requests from Girard at Large to disclose which recommendation he was funding, how that consensus was reached and how that $7 million as allocated in his budget. Ruais also said he funded step and longevity raises in the budget and also refused to identify their costs and which employees would received them. When asked by Alderman Crissy Kantor (R-Ward 6) at the April 15 meeting of the BMA about how much he put into his budget to fund those raises, he said he didn’t know.
Last month, Kantor announced she will run against Ruais for mayor, citing, among other things, his “lack of transparency.”
Girard at Large will update this story as information becomes available.
