Council hears from one of its own

Close to the end of the July 6 , 2026 city council meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Gabby Kinnett read a letter addressing the hiring of the current city manager Cory Gayman:

“I would like to request the council allow for the city clerk to submit a job opportunity for city manager on the Municipal league websites of Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma for the next two months, or until a pool of qualified applicants can be obtained. Following the termination of the City Clerk an internal employee was placed as interim. We then as a council reviewed the applicants, interviewed the chosen candidates, and decided as a whole council on the replacement City Clerk. This process was not taken in the instance of the current interim City Manager and I am requesting we be allowed as an entire council to choose the most qualified candidate for the position. This is a responsibility of the City Council.

After requesting copies of both manager contracts following the last meeting; I would like to request a review of the City Manager contract created specifically for him. The contract in section 5 states he shall be entitled to all the same benefits, leave, insurance, retirement, reimbursement and other employee related benefits as the immediately proceeding city manager. Yet, the new contract does not include where he will be an exclusive employee of the city as the immediately previous city manager contract states in section 2 letter D. Nor does it state as in Section 10 of the immediately previous city manager contract regarding the expectation to put in at least eight hours per day, five days a week. There is also no clarification on vacation time as there was in the immediately preceding contract. Section 11 of the new contract again states he is afforded all the same provisions as the previous, but there is nothing specific in the contract regarding severance or notice of departure as in the immediately previous city manager.

If the new manager is going to be expected to fulfill the same roles and responsibilities along with gaining the same benefits and as the immediately proceeding manager, why did he not just sign the same employee agreement as the previous one?

When getting copies of the contracts to review, I was also given a new contract with new salary amounts on it that were signed only by the interim city manager and back dated to 06/15/2026. This was not shown to the council, nor was it voted on by the council. This was not the contract attached to the resolution 26-20. The contract we voted on was for a monthly salary of $8,750 per month. The contract also in the file was for a yearly salary of $118,153.36 per year. This is an increase of $1,096.11 per month more than the contract voted upon. When coming up today to see if the city manager employee file had been updated with an application, resume or CV, or if a background check had been completed, I was told no. I did however find that the mayor had also signed this new contract and also backdated it to 06/15/26. The city clerk has not signed this or notarized the paperwork, yet he is being paid the updated amount.

This is not transparency. This is not consistency. This is changing rules and procedures as seeing fit.

I want to publicly apologize to the people of El Dorado Springs for voting yes on this contract prior to comparing it more closely to the proceeding city manager contract, as I was not prepared for the decisions being placed on me that night. I do want the citizens to know that I do not take these decisions lightly, and I want honesty and clarity in the decisions being made.

These are our tax dollars, mine included. This is our general fund that also funds our police, fire department, courts and street department. These are limited funds that do not come easily for a municipality our size.

I thank the council for the time to make my statement, and would like to extend an opportunity for the ones who chose the current manager and wrote the contract to publicly state their reasoning for these changes and decisions.

After finishing the letter there was a long silence before Kim Neal moved to approve for the city clerk to write up a job description for city manger and submit it to the municipal leagues in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma.  The motion was seconded by Peggy Carter and the vote was unanimous.

In other action the council approved the minutes of the June15 regular meeting and the June 22 special meeting as well as the executive meeting minutes for June 15 and June 22.

During the public forum a group of citizens representing the airport thanked the council  for supporting them.

The council approved the award of a bid for airport reconstruction between the city and Dirks Heavy Contracting: appointed Ron Brown to the El Dorado Springs Board of Adjustment: and approved on the first and second reading an ordinance authoring an agreement between the city and the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission for Airport Improvements at the El Dorado Springs Municipal Airport.

The city clerk reported that the city had sold 1,000 feet of vender space and didn’t plan to sell anymore.

The city manager reported on new plans for the police/fire station as well the insurance hikes for the city.

The meeting adjourned and the council voted to go into executive session.

Publisher’s Note

City Manager Cory Gayman visited the Sun about 10 p.m. on Monday, July 6. He felt he needed to explain the discrepancy in the two figures printed as his salary. The last section of each of the agreements read:

“This agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties concerning the subject matter contained herein. Upon production or discovery of the employment agreement of the immediately preceding City Manager, the agreement shall be amended as necessary to mirror such agreement, except where expressly modified by the City Council or prohibited by law.”

Both employment agreements are dated on June 15. The first one give Gayman $8,750 per month or $105,000 per year. The second agreement gives the city manager $118,153.36 per year. or 9,846.11 per month. The higher figure represents what former City Manager Bruce Rogers was making.

Gayman said he didn’t give himself a raise. He said his salary was amended as part of what the council had approved. He believes that Kinnett approved the original agreement which mentioned that the agreement would be amended as necessary.

It was always the intention for Gayman’s salary to match Rogers’.