City Council Special/Workshop Meeting

Port Lavaca, TX CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL/WORKSHOP MEETING April 30, 2025 CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL/WORKSHOP MEETING Wednesday, April 30, 2025 at 5:30 PM City Council Chambers | 202 N. Virginia Street, Port Lavaca TX 77979 MINUTES STATE OF TEXAS § COUNTY OF CALHOUN § CITY OF PORT LAVACA § On this the 30th day of April, 2025, the City Council of the City of Port Lavaca, Texas, convened in a special meeting and workshop session at 5:30 p.m. at the regular meeting place in Council Chambers at City Hall, 202 North Virginia Street, Port Lavaca, Texas, with the following members in attendance: I. ROLL CALL Jack Whitlow Mayor Daniel Aguirre Councilman, District 1 Tim Dent Councilman, District 2 Allen Tippit Councilman, District 3 Rosie G. Padron Councilwoman, District 4, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Ward Councilman, District 5 Justin Burke Councilman, District 6 And with the following absent: None Constituting a quorum for the transaction of business, at which time the following business was transacted: CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING II. CALL TO ORDER • Mayor Whitlow called the special meeting to order at 5:40 p.m. and presided. III. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC (Limited to 3 minutes per individual unless permission to speak longer is received in advance. You may make public comments as you would at a meeting by logging on with your computer and using “Join Zoom Meeting” information on first page of this agenda). • Mayor Whitlow asked for comments from the public and there were none. IV. ACTION ITEMS - Council will consider/discuss the following items and take any action deemed necessary. Page 1 of 6 Port Lavaca, TX CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL/WORKSHOP MEETING April 30, 2025 1. Receive report on the Compensation Plan Study by Public Sector Personnel Consultants. Presenter is Brittney Hogan Mr. Sam Heinz, representative of the Public Sector Personnel Consultants. was in attendance via Zoom and went over a PowerPoint presentation on the 2025 Compensation Plan Study. Motion made by Councilman District 2 Dent NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PORT LAVACA, TEXAS: THAT, Council hereby approves the 2025 Compensation Plan Study, prepared by Public Sector Personnel Consultants (PSPC). Seconded by Councilman District 3 Tippit Councilman District 1 Aguirre, Councilman District 2 Dent, Councilman District 3 Tippit, Councilwoman District 4 (Mayor Pro Tem) Padron, Councilman District 5 Ward and Councilman District 6 Burke 2. Consider adoption of a revised City Compensation Plan for fiscal year 2024-25. Presenter is Jody Weaver Interim City Manager Weaver advised Council that For reference, the following are Classification and Compensation Plan policies that have been previously adopted by Council: 1) It is the policy of the City to place its job classes at 100% of the prevailing rates paid for similar occupations by the employer with whom we compete for high quality staff, if financially able, based upon the non-weighted average rates of the designated comparator employers. 2) The city will perform surveys every two (2) years, to include city-to-city contact and survey data available through TML. Every sixth (6th) year the City contracts with a third party to review and recommend changes to the City's job descriptions and salaries. [This fiscal year, the City contracted with a third party, Public Sector Personnel Consultants (PSPC), for this review and preparation of a report with recommendations for changes, which is the topic of tonight's special meeting]. 3) Survey salary structures and prevailing rates will be represented by the survey midpoints, which are the amounts employers pay for sustained competent performance. 4) Job classes are individually reassigned to different salary ranges on a bi-annual basis to reflect the varying movement (if any) in the external prevailing rates (survey midpoints) for each job class using the currently adopted Permanent Salary Range Table. This table should not be adjusted by blanket percentages or flat dollar amounts, as that will adversely impact on the city's external competitiveness and the internal equity of the salary plan. Page 2 of 6 Port Lavaca, TX CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL/WORKSHOP MEETING April 30, 2025 5) There is no expectation or guarantee that an employee will be at a certain point in the range after a certain number of years. The only guarantees are that (1) each person will make at least the minimum for the assigned pay range and (2) that each person will not be paid a higher salary than the maximum for that range. In cases where survey data requires movement of a salary range, and the City is not financially able to accommodate the full movement required in one budget year, the City will develop a plan for bringing these positions into the correct range over a multiyear period not to exceed three (3) years. 6) The starting salary for a new hire will be at least the minimum of the pay range for the job. Department heads have the authority to increase the starting pay up to 5% above the minimum if the applicant exceeds the minimum qualifications for the job. If the Department Head would like to request an amount above the 5%, this request must be submitted for City Manager approval. Above 105% requires City Council approval. These requests must be made prior to the job offer. 7) In situations where an employee is promoted to a position more than four (4) salary ranges above their current range, the City will develop an employee specific plan to bring that employee to the minimum range of their new position over a multiyear period, not to exceed three (3) years. The plan should include specific goals and performance criteria that the employee clearly understands what is required to meet the requirements of the new position. 8) Each year the city council will allocate funds to keep the city in line with the compensation plan. Every city employee is guaranteed to be within a competitive range classified by job class. No employee is guaranteed an increase in compensation each year unless the employee's salary has dropped below the minimum adopted range for the job class. The City intends to reward for performance over and beyond the basic job requirements. The City will continue to provide performance evaluation and performance-based merit increases at the beginning of each budget year (currently October 1st). As budgeted by Council, staff contracted with Public Sector Personnel Consultants (PSPC) to perform a salary survey/compensation plan update. The results of this survey and plan update are being presented at tonight's special meeting by our consultant with PSPC. In the list of recommended job titles, there are two positions shown which we currently are not using, but PSCP thinks we may consider in the future. These are a Senior Customer Service Representative and a Senior Municipal Clerk. Currently there are two employees in each of these positions. Based upon the interviews, it was identified that at this time one employee may have some additional responsibilities over the other perhaps warranting a senior position, but with further review, we have concluded that this observation was due to one of the two having not been in the position for as long as the other and is still learning/training. The intent at this time is not to have two separate job descriptions, with one a senior and the other entry level, but rather that both positions provide the same services and tasks and thus are interchangeable as needed. Page 3 of 6 Port Lavaca, TX CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL/WORKSHOP MEETING April 30, 2025 Also for clarification, the "Senior Streets or Utilities Maintenance Worker" is currently called a Heavy Equipment Operator and a "Lift Station Operator" currently has the title Utilities Operator. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: We have calculated that to bring all employees to the minimum of the new pay ranges as shown in the PSPC report, the cost for a full year is $119,841.45. That cost for the remainder of this fiscal year (effective May 1) is $46,092.87 (including benefits). Staff is proposing to update the salary ranges in the City's compensation plan as recommended by the study and, using excess funds in our balanced budget for FY 2024-2025, increase wages as needed to comply with item 1 of the above-cited policy. The additional amounts to be funded from the remaining balanced budget excesses are as follows: $38,144.07 in the General Fund, $7,817.75 in the Public Utility Fund, and $131.05 in the Port & Harbors Fund. This will bring all employees to the minimum levels of the new pay grade. The department heads have reviewed these results and as of this writing, there has been no concern expressed of this proposed action resulting in any concerning wage "compression" between two or more employees. The budgeted full-time positions for FY 2024-2025 are 98 and the full-time equivalent (FTE) part- time positions are 2.81. Note the budgeted full-time equivalent (FTE) for FY 2024-2025 included an FTE of 1 for the full-time dispatchers and .18 for part-time dispatchers. Since we have transitioned the dispatchers over to the county that would make the new FTE count for full-time positions at 97 and part-time positions at 2.63. Effective May 01, 2025, staff recommends City Council approve the revised compensation plan for FY 2024- 2025 as follows: • Adopt the new Job Classification Recommendations • Adopt the Proposed Salary Schedule • Adopt the market-sensitive Range Assignments proposed for each position in the City. • Adopt the updated job titles and descriptions as presented • Acknowledge the City Headcount is 97 full-time employees and 2.63 part-time FTEs • Authorize the increase of salary expenditure of $46,092.87 for this fiscal year, to increase the pay rate to the minimum of the new pay scale of any employee whose pay rate is not at least at the minimum of the new pay range now. Motion made by Councilman District 3 Tippit NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PORT LAVACA, TEXAS: THAT, in accordance with the recommendation of staff, Council hereby approves the following: • Adopt the new Job Classification Recommendations • Adopt the Proposed Salary Schedule • Adopt the market-sensitive Range Assignments proposed for each position in the City. • Adopt the updated job titles and descriptions as presented Page 4 of 6 Port Lavaca, TX CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL/WORKSHOP MEETING April 30, 2025 • Acknowledge the City Headcount is 97 full-time employees and 2.63 part-time FTEs • Authorize the increase of salary expenditure of $46,092.87 for this fiscal year, to increase the pay rate to the minimum of the new pay scale of any employee whose pay rate is not at least at the minimum of the new pay range now. Seconded by Councilman District 5 Ward Councilman District 1 Aguirre, Councilman District 2 Dent, Councilman District 3 Tippit, Councilwoman District 4 (Mayor Pro Tem) Padron, Councilman District 5 Ward and Councilman District 6 Burke V. ADJOURN SPECIAL MEETING Mayor Whitlow asked for motion to adjourn. Motion made by Councilman District 5 Ward Seconded by Councilman District 6 Burke Voting Yea: Councilman District 1 Aguirre, Councilman District 2 Dent, Councilman District 3 Tippit, Councilwoman District 4 (Mayor Pro Tem) Padron, Councilman District 5 Ward and Councilman District 6 Burke Special Meeting adjourned at 6:44 p.m. Mayor announced Council would recess at 6:44 p.m. Mayor announced Council was back in session at 6:52 p.m. WORKSHOP SESSION VI. CALL TO ORDER • Mayor Whitlow called the workshop to order at 6:52 p.m. and presided with the following announcement: VII. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC (Limited to 3 minutes per individual unless permission to speak longer is received in advance. You may make public comments as you would at a meeting by logging on with your computer and using “Join Zoom Meeting” information on first page of this agenda). • Mayor Whitlow asked for comments from the public and there were none. VIII. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION - Council will discuss the following items 1. Discuss enforcement and possible revisions to the following ordinances: Chapter 12 – Buildings and Building Regulations, Article IV – Substandard Buildings; Chapter 20 – Environment and Health, Article III Accumulations on property and Article XII – Litter; Chapter 34 – Garage Sale permits. Presenter is Derrick Smith Page 5 of 6 Port Lavaca, TX CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL/WORKSHOP MEETING April 30, 2025 Council discussed this agenda item. No action necessary and none taken. 2. Discuss Code Enforcement and potential zoning ordinance. Presenter is Derrick Smith Council discussed this agenda item. No action necessary and none taken. IX. ADJOURN WORKSHOP Mayor Whitlow asked for motion to adjourn. Motion made by Councilman District 3 Tippit Seconded by Councilman District 5 Ward Voting Yea: Councilman District 1 Aguirre, Councilman District 2 Dent, Councilman District 3 Tippit, Councilwoman District 4 (Mayor Pro Tem) Padron, Councilman District 5 Ward and Councilman District 6 Burke Workshop adjourned at 8:08 p.m. These minutes were approved on May 12, 2025. ATTEST: Jack Whitlow, Mayor Mandy Grant, City Secretary Page 6 of 6