PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MINUTES
JUNE 20, 2007
The meeting was called to
order at 5:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: David Burke, John Gore, John Marshall
OTHERS PRESENT: Kathy House, Brian Dostanko
Mr. Marshall nominated Mr.
Burke for Chairman. Affirmative
voice vote unanimous.
AGENDA:
·
Review Council
Salary
Mr. Gore noted the Mayor’s
salary is $16,000, which is a part-time position, and Council’s salary is
$4,800, also a part-time position. Need
to look somewhere in between. Mr. Gore
suggested $9,600, which is still $6,400 below the Mayor’s salary. The increase would go into effect for the
Ward council members that would be elected in January, but At-large members
would not go into effect until the year of that election.
Mr. Marshall said he was involved
in 46 meetings, including Council meetings, special meetings and committee
meetings.
Mr. Gore said the salary went
from $200 to $400 about 8 years ago.
Mr. Burke feels there should
be an increase. Council members are not
driven to serve on Council for the money; it’s more of a cost reimbursement
issue. At $100 a week, that would be
$5,200. By the time you deduct PERS and
taxes, you are getting a tank of gas per week.
At the minimum, City Council should be a break-even proposition in
addition to the public service it allows one to do. $5,200 would be minimum
of a $500/year increase. An increase
would add encouragement to other people to get involved in anything above and
beyond. Campaign fees range from $1,000
on up. There should be an incentive
above and beyond public service to make someone whole. Feels the minimum should be $100 per
week.
Mr. Gore pointed out an
advantage of not raising it. Once you
serve one year, you are eligible to buy .35% towards retirement. There are advantages to the PERS insurance
versus a private insurance. If you serve
8 years, you can buy 2-1/2 years at $400 per month. A raise increases what that purchase price
would be. This pertains to all elected
officials, State representatives, Governor, etc. $400 does qualify for full-time.
Mr. Marshall suggested
looking at Council and the Mayor’s salary.
Mr. Gore said he would like
to see the City Law Director’s position full-time. He feels there is enough City business to
warrant a full-time position.
Mr. Dostanko
noted that the salaries for Boards and Commissions were doubled last year. He suggested doing a comparable study and let
that drive the increase.
Mr. Gore moved to continue to
pursue an increase, look at a comparative study, then decide on an amount then
bring forward to Council; affirmative voice vote was unanimous.
·
Commendation
Policy
Ms. House explained this item
is per a request from Mr. Pleasant as a result of a request to Administration. Request
was for the Mayor to formally commend a local high school student who won his
wrestling class at State tournament, which the Mayor is happy to do. The request was not only that the Mayor commend him, but that it be done at a City Council
meeting. As a result, Ms. House asked
Mr. Pleasant about the request and he noted there had been issues in the past,
and he would prefer that Public Affairs discuss this issue before making any
decision. There is no policy or
guidelines in place for recognizing individuals. It was agreed recognition is important, but
criteria is necessary so it’s not hit and miss.
Suggested
State Champion as minimum criteria, not regional and district. Common sense
plays a part in recognition. Mr. Burke
hates to put criteria in place for fear of missing people.
It was decided that if the
Mayor or Council gets a request to recognize an individual and they agree to do
it, that individual will be recognized by a written commendation. No criteria will be created.
·
Review Ordinance
Organizing Departments and Divisions
Ms. House noted the Charter
had been changed to the Departments and Divisions section. However, changes were not made to the
ordinance. Departments were added to the
Charter. Now that the City has
departments, they need to officially be added to the ordinance. Mr. Dostanko
presented the existing ordinance as well as a proposed recommendation to
Ordinance 27-94. This repeals the old
ordinance and establishes certain departments.
It is fully in accordance with the Charter. It’s up to date as it discusses the City
Planner, Economic Developer, as well as the HR Manager. The organization chart needs to be
updated. This ordinance repeals 27-94
and accurately reflects the City’s structure as it is today. At some point, the Codified Ordinances will
have to be cleaned up to be consistent with the changes.
The position of Law Director
was questioned as to reporting structure.
The Law Director reports to the people since he is elected. His position will be shown accordingly on the
new organization chart.
The Charter change allows the
Mayor to establish not only Divisions, but Divisions and Departments.
Mr. Dostanko
noted one problem still exists with the Charter and that is Ms. House’s
position is labeled incorrectly. The
Charter states that the law director, finance director and director of
administration report directly to the Mayor.
That doesn’t make any sense because the Mayor is a part-time
position.
Mr. Gore noted another option
is that Ms. House could have a classified title and a working title. The intent of that position is to manage the
City and that means to manage everyone who works within the City. It’s always been the expectation that if you
have a part-time Mayor, you need someone full time to run the City and that’s
always been the Director of Administration.
Mr. Dostanko said the Charter does not show
that. It shows Ms. House is the head of
the Department of Administration only and the finance director reports to the
Mayor.
It was agreed to proceed with
the proposed ordinance.
·
General
Discussion – Unclassified Salaries
Mr. Dostanko
notes some exempted salaries issues.
There are two unions, FOP and the IAFF for Police and Fire. Have about 130 other employees. Of those 130, about 20/30
employees are exempted, unclassified employees. After doing some research, Chief Johnson
assured him that in the mid-to late 90’s, Council recognized that there was a
problem with the exempted salaries and recommended a 1.5 adjustment year
plan. It was implemented for a year,
there was a vote and Council changed and it was not continued. In 2005, went through a Strategic Workforce
Plan. A comparable surveyed 60-70 key
cities to find out how many people in each position and what they were being
paid. Used the other cities and how they
were structured, as well as some local things to try to guide how many people
would be needed in the next 5 years and budget accordingly. He then went to Administration to tell them
there were wage issues. A wage adjustment was recommended but not
followed through on. Another issue is
the salary when filling a position of someone who has been with the City for a
long time. A recent issue is with the
Assistant Fire Chief, who voluntarily moved to a firefighter position. In doing an executive search to fill this
position, City opted to use $60,000 to $68,000 as the salary structure. He showed the committee a salary structure
for 2007. The problem with this is unit
fire fighters, which also includes lieutenants, get
mandatory overtime because they work a 53 hour work week, 24 hours on, 48 hours
off. If you add in the mandatory
overtime, 3 lieutenants make more than the Assistant Fire Chief made prior to
stepping down. Mr. Marshall relayed
comments he received from a citizen. The
citizen suggested instead of having an Assistant Fire Chief, have 3 Battalion
Chiefs. That way, you end up with a
Battalion for each unit. You have
someone who can make command decisions that is not tasked with firefighter
responsibilities. As it is now, the
lieutenant for each unit would serve as the Chief when they go out to a
fire. Plus he also has firefighting
responsibilities along with making command decisions at the same time.
Another issue that needs to
be addressed is the selection of comparables. City uses comparables that are
similar in population, tax brackets and matrix of services. The
only City that mirrors our services is
If the City hires an
Assistant Fire Chief at the high end, $68,000, two lieutenants are going to be
making more than the new assistant fire chief.
There are four options 1) do nothing,
2) as
you get to it, solve it, 3) single fix action, which is very high and 4)
incremental wage adjustment plan, which Mr. Dostanko
recommended previously and still prefers.
Adjust it now before you go into the hire and do it incrementally over
three or four years so that the general budget or the enterprise doesn’t take a
major hit right away. Feels this would
be acceptable to a new hire.
Meeting adjourned at 6:47
p.m.