The source from which I extracted that data is the monthly status report provided to all council members.
Employee compensation is, admittedly, a subjective determination.
The council must balance a desire to be generous with employees with a responsibility to be prudent with taxpayers' dollars. It is not an easy task. Every three years, the staff conducts a comparison review, by job description, of a broad range of other communities in Texas that are similar in size, demographics, average income, etc. Obviously, no two communities are idential in every respect. An effort is made to select some that are more, and some less, affluent than Stephenville.