LISBON —  A proposed pay raise for Town Manager Glenn Michalowski was tabled Tuesday after some town councilors wanted his performance review completed first.

His current salary is about $54; the proposed salary is about $60, according to meeting documents. He has worked for the town for about two and a half years.

“Seems like we’re putting the cart before the horse to give someone a raise without seeing if … they have met any of their goals for this calendar year, what those goals were and usually raises are based on merit,” said, Councilor Norm Albert, who requested the issue be tabled.

Though Councilor Mark Lunt said Michalowski has earned the increase, he also wanted to wait until after the review is done. He said the timing of the agenda item was not “great.”

Chairperson Fern Larochelle said the review is overdue and should have been done a while ago. He also thought it is challenging to bring in new councilors to try to evaluate the town manager for a year they did not serve in. He recommended moving forward with approving the wage increase.

Albert argued that the new councilors would not be evaluating the town manager, rather it would be the former councilors providing feedback – the new councilors would only need to “sit in their roles,” he said.

While Larochelle said he respected Albert’s opinion, he said Michalowski has been patient, worked hard and should have already received a merit increase.

The majority of councilors on the previous council overseeing the town manager were in support of the increase.

“The idea of sending him a message that we don’t support him in that manner, doesn’t – to me – send a correct message,” Larochelle said.

Albert said the only reason why the report is overdue is because councilors did not meet the “mile markers” they were supposed to. He called for them to be more diligent in getting that done on time.

Former Councilor Harry Moore Jr. spoke during public comment about several other towns’ managers hourly salary rates. He said he supports a raise and the salary should be around $60 per hour and believes Michalowski is worth it. He also said the town should be forward looking for staff retention and recruitment.

“Maine has 483 municipalities, Lisbon is the 25th largest town out of that … it’s the 25th in size and 38th in salary for their town manager,” he said. “Lisbon’s valuation is $807,500,000, that’s 71 out of that 483 municipalities. So when this comes up for a vote I would recommend that it makes sense to have our town manager be comparable to the other towns that I read out.”

Albert argued that the salaries Moore listed off do not demonstrate goals that were set and goals that were achieved. He also believes those discussions about the town manager should not be done in public because he is a town employee.

Former Councilor Raymond Robishaw also supported the proposed salary increase, saying it took months of work to find and hire him.

“When you have a good person on your team you want to keep them and our town manager is one of them,” he said.

A couple of the new councilors said they would like to see the review before voting on a raise.

The issue will be placed on a future agenda.

In other business, councilors accepted an American Legion Post 158 donation of $6,500 for an ice skating rink at Graziano Square this winter. It will be a small rink in the park, possibly 30 feet by 40 feet, according to Parks and Recreation Director Mark Stevens.

The recreation department will still maintain the rink behind the MTM Center and will still plow Pond One at Beaver Park for skating, he said.

At the beginning of the meeting, new Councilors Nicholas Craig, Christopher Camire and Jeremy Barnard were sworn in. Larochelle was elected chairperson  and Camire was elected vice chairperson.