Committee of the Whole

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - MINUTES City Municipal Building | Council Chambers 295 Meridian Street, Groton, CT 06340 Monday, September 9, 2024 | 6:00 PM COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - Minutes Mayor Keith Hedrick, Deputy Mayor Gweneviere Depot, Councilor Erin Artale, Councilor Paul Norris, Councilor Tony Patterson, Councilor Christine Piazza and Councilor Stephen Sheffield and City Clerk Dani Baycura Mayor Hedrick called the meeting to order at 6:00pm. I. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Hedrick, Deputy Mayor Depot, Councilor Artale, Councilor Norris. Via Zoom: Councilor Patterson and Councilor Sheffield. II. EXECUTIVE SESSION Motion to move executive session up in agenda: Deputy Mayor Depot. Second: Councilor Artale. Motion carried, 5-0-0. Motion to enter Executive Session: Deputy Mayor Depot. Second: Councilor Artale. Motion carried, 5-0-0. Enter into Executive Session pursuant CGS 1-200 6(A) Personnel – Police Department IN – 6:01pm Present – Mayor and Council, Chief Burton, Captain Leitau and Jimmy Chen OUT – 6:08pm *No action out of executive session. III. NEW BUSINESS A. Financial Update Finance Director Yuhas explained to Council he was preparing a fuller review for GU as well as City financials so far in the fiscal year. And that he would share those at the COW on September 23rd. B. Salary Study Review– HR Human Resources Director Avedisian presented a brief overview of the salary survey conducted in the first half of the year. Director Avedisian reiterated the survey was conducted for all non-union positions. Methodology used included the INTANDEM Compensation Evaluation System, which numerically categorizes leadership, accountability, problem solving, expertise, and inter-communication, for each individual position. She stated using those total calculations, positions were graded offering insight as to the equity in the City pay rates. Next, surveys of pay rates from other local towns and cities were obtained and a comparative excel spreadsheet was created. The spreadsheet along with survey data and job description CES scores, were then reviewed with the Mayor and the subsequent final increases were approved. 1  COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - MINUTES City Municipal Building | Council Chambers 295 Meridian Street, Groton, CT 06340 Deputy Mayor Depot stated she appreciated being shown how the grades apply to the CES scores and believed it was a comprehensive way to assess the positions, regardless of who occupied that role. She asked if the rate showed would be the “hired” rate for a currently vacant position. To which Director Avedisian replied she would like to build a structure, using all the data, to create hirable minimum/maximum ranges for each position. Mayor Hedrick stated the City is driving to be competitive with surrounding towns as we are all competing for the same people essentially. We want to maintain the ability to hire. Deputy Mayor asked what role merit plays salaries. Director Avedisian replied that the City currently does not have any merit based increases and it is something many employees have complained about. She believes a merit program would be something worth pursuing for the City. Councilor Sheffield agreed when competing for new employees, private sector is always going to pay more, so if the City could maximize benefits, that may be something more workable. He stated that although he thinks job performance is important, in all forms of government, jobs are going to be more contract/increase per year based. After confirming the City still offers employees a pension not a 401k plan, Councilor Norris stated that is a big draw to use for recruitment. He continued by expressing he feels pay increases year after year is all over the place. If Mayor provides a standard 3% to non-union, he believes that is a better deal than merit based as then those could be lower. Councilor Norris then asked, as an example, when evaluating police chiefs’ salary, did HR use the CES system on the comparable neighboring chiefs. Mayor Hedrick answered no they did not, they only compared salaries and job descriptions. And when comparing job descriptions, no two are identical, there were none that completely mirrored the City’s positions. Councilor Norris stated as he understood it, the INTANDEM CES tool, is more used for in- house pay bracket determinations. Not with a comparison of other jobs in other agencies. Councilor Norris continued to ask why the Police Chief, even if increased an extra 5% once his master’s degree is completed, is paid considerably lower than all the other compared towns on the spreadsheet. Director Avedisian responded the bigger towns have more officers/bigger departments. To which Councilor Norris said that brought him back to original question of how the rate was determined. He was unable to find a pattern with who got a 3%, 5% or 10%. Councilor Sheffield asked if the 3% and 5% increases for Police Chief and Police Captain were different to keep the salaries within a range of each other. Mayor Hedrick responded there is no definitive amount he was keeping between the two but comparatively they have two separate job descriptions with different requirements on each. Councilor Sheffield asked if the agreement to increase salary upon completion of master’s degree, was written in a contract. Both Mayor Hedrick and Director Avedisian clarified it was a verbal agreement only. 2  COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - MINUTES City Municipal Building | Council Chambers 295 Meridian Street, Groton, CT 06340 Councilor Norris asked if the master’s degree was a requirement for Police Chief position. Mayor responded it is not. Councilor Norris expressed he felt this only added more confusion to the process of who-gets-what then. Deputy Mayor Depot said most of the towns used for comparison have at least twice the population size. IV. ADJOURNMENT Motion to adjourn: Deputy Mayor Depot. Second: Councilor Artale. Motion carried, 5-0-0. Meeting adjourned at 6:50pm. ATTEST: APPROVED: Dani Baycura City Clerk 3