Council Minutes

SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

Wednesday, September 4, 2002 - 12:00 Noon

The city council met as the Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 at 12:00 noon in the council chambers in City Hall with President Gershman presiding. Present at roll call were Council Member Brooks, Hamerlik, Gershman, Kerian, Kreun - 5; absent: Council Member Glassheim - 1.

2.1 Presentation by PSPC Consultant, Matthew Weatherly.
Matthew Weatherly, representing Public Sector Personnel Consultants, the firm that was contracted to conduct the classification and compensation study, presented a brief overview of the project scope and little bit of insight as to methodology that was applied (attachment of handout). He stated their firm, Public Sector Personnel Consultants, has been in business since 1991, with headquarters in Scottsdale, AZ and have conducted approx. 800 public sector and 200 private sectors studies similar to this in scope. He noted that the City will have salary ranges based on internal equity as well as external competitiveness and the adoption of the proposed plan will permit the City to consider significant factors relating to internal equity, external competitiveness and those financial constraints.

Council Member Kerian stated it may help if the comparators were listed; Mr. Weatherly stated the comparisons that were made based on couple different factors, they used local government salary surveys, the International City and County Management Assn., the ICMA that publishes the Municipal Year Book which contains the salaries of municipal officials (cities with pop. from 50,000 to 100,000 in the north central region), and obtained pay plans for individual cities: Aberdeen, Alexandria, Bemidji, Bismarck, Crookston, Detroit Lakes, Devils Lake, Duluth, East Grand Forks, Fargo, Fergus Falls,, Hibbing, Jamestown, Minot, Moorhead, Rapid City, Rochester, Sioux Falls, St. Cloud, Thief River Falls, Valley City and West Fargo, and also obtained data from private employers in the Grand Forks area through the Bureau of Labor Statistics Publication for Grand Forks, ND MN metropolitan statistical area (Aberdeen, Alexandria, Bismarck, Duluth, EGF, Fargo, Fergus Falls, Hibbing, Minot, Moorhead, Rapid City, Rochester, Sioux Falls and St. Cloud) and with the salary survey it is important to note that it simply serves as that starting point for the development of range assignment, so salary survey is used for reference and for comparison only, internal relationships and hierarchy can dictate how a range assignment is developed above and beyond the salary survey findings and recommendations. He stated there were a good number of positions that fell into that local government specific but there were three distinct groups - executive and management positions which are more size sensitive, municipal specific that are not size sensitive and non-municipal specific positions that appear in both the private and public sector.

Council Member Hamerlik stated in his presentation he stated "staff recommendations" and asked him to define staff. Charlie Bunce, HR director, stated staff in this case was HR and had to use Finance in this because at the same time they were working on the budget and timing was extremely convenient for that, the mayor's office and department heads association and employee representatives and all through the wage committee.
Council Member Hamerlik stated every wage study meets with a great deal of concern by certain people, not one has been perfect, depends on where one falls when one looks at one's own salary and one's own description, etc. and because of that in the past we haven't moved forward very fast and was a bit disappointed in the last one, even some new council people felt it was not good and even with this there is concern that there's some things wrong with it. He asked if the employees were given an opportunity to "correct" their job description, concerns he heard were "that they used to do this, this, etc. and combined some things and really my job title is this based on these things and really should be something else. Mr. Weatherly stated that the City did not request that they develop position descriptions, and that is something that HR staff may be able to respond to better in the way of recognizing what duties and responsibilities were actually similar and which different, if new position descriptions are developed and no formal appeals process.

President Gershman stated the committee did take that under consideration and as a committee figured that they could not sit and identify and do each one, and that those employees that have a concern, whatever their concern is, will go with HR and their department heads and work that out as this process moves forward. They don't know how many concerns there are, but everyone will be addressed, but committee felt to move this process forward and try implementing by January 1, 2003.

Ed Grossbauer, fire department rep., stated there was an attempt not to do any of the reclassifications that they've done in the past but with HR's assistance and with the consultant all of the reclassification requests that were submitted in the timely manner as they were supposed to were forwarded to the consultant and they were supposed to take all of that into consideration when they put the job classifications together - and when you say that someone has taken on new duties should be reclassified, those were supposed to be built into this and when the consultants were doing the job interviews they were supposed to have enough time to look at those.

Council Member Hamerlik stated that there are some duties that aren't being done, when they take on additional ones, some duties that were not any longer in their job classification, and as long as that is taken into consideration and giving the employee a chance to at least be heard.

Mr. Grossbauer stated his only concern with the interview process was that there were certain groups of job classifications that had almost 30 people in them and were all interviewed together and if two or three had changes not enough time to respond and when sit down can look at that also. President Gershman stated there was commitment on the part of the council for that to take place.

COUNCIL MEMBER CHRISTENSEN REPORTED PRESENT

Council Member Kerian stated that some of the questions they've had seem to be things that your business might continue to be involved with, there are some people who feel that their mid-point or range not appropriate for them, and given that there are some things that are perceived to be errors where positions are put or in the job description, will you continue to work with HR, is your company still involved or is it up to our HR. Mr. Weatherly stated they would be assisting HR with any issues that they do not feel are internal issues but rather within the scope of the project that they were requested to complete.

Mr. Bunce stated they have set forth a preliminary way to look at this, can't do it until this particular issue is settled and the budget is also settled but the process even going on into 2004; that they will sort out into individual questions, department questions, city questions and handle as much as can internally and those that they can't come to some conclusion or recommendation with department heads, will be passed on to the Mayor's Office to the Adm. Coordinator for some sort of resolution. The second piece is once they get the go ahead, there will be training on what the process is, timeline and to answer some of the other questions - in 2003 need to do job descriptions, look at ordinance changes and salary plan, so when hit the budget planning process for 2004, the system will be in place with fewer bugs and reviewing this for the entire year to get it to something they can use by January 1, 2003.

Council Member Kreun stated this is very important to our city employees, and will be on-going process for 2 to 3 years and keep that in the back of our minds and make sure we implement a program.

President Gershman asked if there were any employees or staff members to come forward.
No one came forward. He stated they have had 13 meetings and have seen a lot of people at a lot of those meetings.

Council Member Kerian stated this is a real change and as people look at this, they recognize that the work that has been done so far is the smallest part of the changes that are ahead and putting a lot on HR and department head to develop and carry out a plan that can be seen as equitable, that people have to feel when they come to work here that they need to understand what they need to do to get paid better, how they need to perform and how they will be able to relate to the people who work around them - those are basic but important things and she believes that the way the department heads and HR are going to work towards that and everyone's ideas on how that can be done are also important, nobody can solve this by themselves and how can we make this succeed together.

President Gershman stated the recommendation that came out of their committee to move forward with this and to address those issues that certain individuals have was a unanimous recommendation - there was a sense of fairness that people's grievances or concerns would be listened to carefully; and speaking personally what he doesn't want to do because he's not qualified to do it, is to assess individual problems and that's why want it in the hands of people that understand what the issues are and know the person and the jobs. He stated what they are going to receive at the council meeting September 16 is the recommended council action, there are two parts, there's a salary policy and a market based salary procedures and that will be coming to council for a vote to move this forward for implementation, and that there have been other studies and put on the shelf for political or other reasons and they are going to move forward with this and will implement it by January1, 2003 and start the process.

2.2 Recommendations by Wage Study Committee as appointed by Mayor Brown.
The city auditor read the recommendation from the Wage Study Committee as follows for council consideration on September 16, 2002:
To adopt a market based salary plan, based on the "Position Classification and FY 2003 Salary Plan presented by PSPC for the City of Grand Forks with implementation to begin 1/1/03. To accept and approve a salary policy, with procedures, for the City as presented by the Wage Study Committee as follows:
It shall be the Salary Policy of the City of Grand Forks to:
1. Strive to pay market-based salaries comparable with public and private employers with whom we compete.
2. Provide salary administration based on the position requirements and an individual's related experience, skills and performance.
3. Provide salary administration that is consistent and equitable.
4. If consistent with the City's financial ability, pay all positions the salary established in the yearly-developed salary plan.

City of Grand Forks, MARKET-BASED SALARY PROCEDURES:
The City of Grand Forks will:
1. Annually update a database of the basic, 50th percentile or average, salary rates (midi-points) of similar occupations of designated comparator employers, and determine a salary range (minimum of 80%, maximum of 120%) for each position,
2. On a regular basis, as needed, review positions to assure similarity of occupations in the market study.
3. Develop GF City standards in determining experience, skills, certifications and performance and implement at departmental level.
4. Develop an annual salary plan in which an individuals' experience, skills, and performance can be combined with the positions' updated salary range to determine appropriate salary.

Council Member Hamerlik stated that he assumes from this that the minimum and maximums of our current salary procedure will not be in place any longer; answer is yes to that; and is he to assume that our current step system will then be a thing of the past. Mr. Bunce stated that is correct. Mr. Hamerlik stated in the salary policy, individuals related experience, skills and performance - we are factoring in a new item called "merit pay".

Council Member Brooks asked Mr. Bunce if the staff as a whole understands we are doing away with the step system. Mr. Bunce stated that is one of the basics that it began with, that a market based system by definition eliminates the step process and some of these other processes that are in the ordinance now. He also noted that when Mr. Hamerlik said "performance" about the 2003 and impact on 2004, it is incumbent upon staff to extent where even bringing in some interns from UND to help out with this, to come up with a performance based system to give the department heads the tools to be able to make these determinations.

Council Member Kerian stated even if we're not doing merit based performance is a factor in whether or not someone gets a minimal salary, they need to be doing the job and there is a piece of performance, whether or not we go with merit.

Council Member Christensen stated his goal since he has been on the council and saw the first pay study in August 2000 and learned that there were several wage studies that had been done prior to, read the minutes of the previous study and it seemed that the whole process is broken down, that he believes this is the beginning of giving the department heads managerial tools to manage their departments better - that when they were interviewing people who were going to help put this wage study together, to a person they all said that our system appeared to be broke because of all the reclassifications, it isn't fair for employees to have to petition for reclassification of your job positions to tweak your pay - if you work hard and do a good job and are an exemplary employee, your department head should have the ability to compensate you and that is the 80 to 120 range; that he hopes the department heads try to get the employees to have an open mind as this goes forward, but it's going to be a change. He stated he looks forward to working with the department heads as a member of this council addressing the issues that will have to be addressed as they review our ordinances for the change, will make this a better place to work and have more enthusiasm as far as jobs they get done and how you get paid.

President Gershman stated he believes that this committee should sine die and doesn't know if they can do that today or an official council action but after the council votes on this, that this committee should go away and let people do their work. He stated they can discuss that but wanted to put that on the table for the council. Council Member Hamerlik stated that as was stated, the mayor appointed you and can also fire you and that doesn't need council action.

Council Member Hamerlik stated that unless anybody thought that he was negative to the committee or study, was not but asking some questions because he has been involved in some of this before and really appreciates what has been done and better than what done in the past.

Mr. Grossbauer stated on behalf of the employees that they appreciate the council's commitment to finally implement a program and on behalf of all the employees he appreciates everything the council has done to push it forward at a more timely fashion and wanted to show their appreciate.

ADJOURN

It was moved by Council Member Christensen and seconded by Council Member Kerian that we adjourn. Carried 6 votes affirmative.

Respectfully submitted,
John M. Schmisek, City Auditor