LEWISTON – Councilors gave City Administrator Jim Bennett a 2.9 percent raise Tuesday night after a 90-minute executive session.

Councilors went behind closed doors during a special meeting Tuesday night to discuss Bennett’s job performance. Councilor President Tom Peters said each councilor and Bennett had completed written performance reviews.

“We handed those out to everybody, and now we’re going to go sit and discuss them,” Peters said.

They emerged at 7:45 p.m. and voted to give Bennett a raise, retroactive to Aug. 15. That boosts his salary to $110,000.

After the meeting, Peters said the council did not extend Bennett’s contract. His contract is scheduled to last through 2012. It was extended by a year by the previous council last August.

“All we voted on was the cost-of-living raise,” Peters said. “He’s here for another four years still. We know he’s not going anywhere.”

Bennett left the city of Westbrook in 2002 to take over as Lewiston’s top employee. He replaced Bogdan Vitas, who resigned from the job after 11 months to take a position overseas.