City Council

MURFREESBORO CITY COUNCIL AGENDA SPECIAL MEETING May 11, 2015 5:30 p.m. City Council Chambers New Business 1. Review of proposed Classification and Compensation Plan. Adjourn Hard copies will be provided by MAG at the meeting and electronic copies posted to the City’s website following the meeting. Public Safety Plan Open Ranges from Steps It is recommended that the Public Safety plan be changed from a step plan to an open range plan. As detailed in the attached FAQ, the open range plan provides the City Council and City Manager maximum flexibility in salary amendments and promotional adjustments in the future. While some public safety employees believe that a step plan represents a guarantee of what the next year’s increase would be, the City has never guaranteed a step increase. Annual salary increases are always the decision of the City Council. The City has led other Tennessee cities in pay increases recently since it approved four consecutive annual increases of 3.5 percent. While neither the City Council nor City Manager can predict the future, both Council and City Administration have demonstrated a history that shows a great commitment to our hard working team. An open range plan will provide Council a much wider option of choices for future salary increases without tying adjustment decisions to step increases. The revised Section 7.0 (implementation cost by job class) also reflects open ranges for both the Unified and Public Safety plans. Please note that this also eliminates the issue of the transition placement falling in between steps and helps to reduce the ongoing pay compression problems created by the step plan. This is consistent with the Focus and Framework document, but in reducing the compression, the approximately $210,000 in adjustments to step are no longer included. Pay Supplements for Fire Captain/Shift Inspectors and Fire Captain/Training Officers I am recommending a $1,000.22 per year salary supplement for Fire Captains also performing the duties of shift inspector or of a training officer. This is the same amount provided to Police Field Training Officers (FTO). This would be effective on July 1, 2015 and will be included in the proposed budget. Implementation Cost The proposed implementation cost is $2.6 million, which will be included in the proposed FY 16 budget. Promotion Policy The proposed resolution to adopt the plan will set the foundation for a new Employee Handbook section on promotions. MAG suggested and I am recommending that when an employee is promoted to a position in a classification in a higher pay grade, the employee shall receive an increase of 5 percent for the first pay grade and 2.5 percent for each additional pay grade up to a maximum of 15 percent or the minimum of the new grade. Once adopted in the resolution, it will govern promotions while the more complete policy is drafted. It is important to note that most promotions will be at least 2 grades and often times more. For example, a promotion from police officer to sergeant is a 4 grade increase (12.5 percent) and a fire driver to fire captain promotion is a 3 grade increase (10 percent). Administrative Review Forms City Council approved the Administrative Review Process at its March 19th meeting. A total of 199 Administrative Review Forms (ARF) were submitted by department heads and/or supervisors to Human Resources. MAG continues to work on the ARFs and will update Council on its progress at the meeting. In cases where MAG does not agree with the employee’s ARF, the review process approved by Council states that the final and definitive decision on ARF rests with the City Manager. Upon completion of the process, I will provide a summary report to City Council. Additionally, I am recommending that any ARF decision made by MAG or the City Manager following Council approval of the plan that results in an increase to the employee will be made retroactive to July 1. In other words, the employee would not be penalized should the salary amount in the adopted MAG report be less than the approved ARF. As previously indicated, Section 8.0 (Implementation Plan Detail) of the draft report lists salary information for employees, which is subject to change due to ARF determinations and correction of errors. Human Resources is tracking this information with precision. There have been corrections to the date in current position when a placement error was found. There have been about 60 corrections made when an error was found in attributing an employee’s date in current position. Response to Council and Employee Questions In response to questions from Council and employee, Human Resources Director Glen Godwin is sending you a memorandum addressing them. I have attached another copy to this memorandum. Recommendation It is recommended that City Council continue its review of the plan. I am anticipating placing a resolution approving adoption and implementation of the Classification and Compensation Plan (including the promotion language) on the May 14th agenda. Robert J. Lyons City Manager C: Department heads