Informational Meeting

MINUTES Informational Meeting Monday, February 6, 2023, at 4:00 PM Carnegie Town Hall, 235 West 10th St., Sioux Falls, SD 57104 1. Call To Order Council Members Present: David Barranco, Sarah Cole, Rich Merkouris, Greg Neitzert, Marshall Selberg, Curt Soehl, Pat Starr (Arr. 4:37 p.m.) Council Members Absent: Alex Jensen Council Chair Curt Soehl called the meeting to order at 4 p.m. 2. Committee/Commission Reports A. Accessible Housing Advisory Board: Wednesday, February 1, 2023 (Council Member Selberg) Council Member Marshall Selberg stated that the board received an update from Sioux Falls Thrive, discussed multi-family TIF guidelines, and discussed filling the current vacancy on the Board. B. Siouxland Heritage Museum Board: Thursday, February 2, 2023 (Council Member Starr) The report will be provided at a future meeting. 3. Councilor Remarks There were none. 4. Presentations A. Compensation & Benefits Study by Bill O'Toole, Director of Human Resources; and, Mike Verdoorn, Principal Consultant from Gallagher Presentation: Approximately 30 minutes followed by discussion O'Toole opened the presentation by explaining the status of the "Employer of Choice Plan" of which the Compensation and Benefits Study was the only remaining deliverable. The objectives of the study are to: attract qualified applicants for employment in all categories of work; retain experienced and qualified employees in all categories of work; provide incentives for employees to pursue career advancement opportunities; and accomplish these objectives within reasonable economic parameters. He then turned the presentation over to Mike Verdoorn, Managing Principal Consultant for the study. Verdoorn opened his portion of the presentation by providing background about his company. The objectives of the study were to: conduct a comprehensive compensation and benefits study; based on the survey data, recommend wage adjustments to salary plans; and recommend a plan and methodology for the City to maintain its pay plans at economically competitive levels over time. Over the past year, there have been some significant shifts in total compensation due to economic changes and labor market changes to include: increases to minimum wage requirements through state laws and market increases; increases in the competitive labor market; and a shift from cost controls to the competition for talent. Verdoorn stated that the City's salary structure is highly competitive with comparable public sector organizations. The City’s Health insurance cost share slightly lags behind the market, but the out-of-pocket maximum leads the market. The City also offers a highly competitive paid time off amount and a competitive retirement plan with comparable employee and employer contributions. In terms of methodology, market data for the project was collected using a custom survey of comparable public sector organizations and using reputable published survey sources. The company also worked with the City to design a custom survey instrument to collect market data on salary ranges, and broad information on benefits, pay practices, paid time off, and retirement plans of comparable public sector organizations. Lastly, the benchmark jobs selected by the City were reviewed to ensure adequate representation. The company also took several steps to follow- up on data collection. The study drew data from 13 other comparable jurisdictions and used 128 benchmark jobs from published surveys. Survey data was adjusted geographically to reflect the "cost of labor" for the Sioux Falls labor market area as calculated by the Economic Research Institute. For the overall comparison to the market, the percentage comparison was calculated between the City’s salary structure with the market. The following guidelines are used when determining the competitive nature of current salary structure comparisons, with focus on comparable market rates: highly competitive (95%-100%); competitive (90%-95%); and potentially misaligned (below 90%). While the focus of the study is identification of positions below the competitive threshold of 90%, the City should also research positions over 115% above the comparable market for potential misalignment. The study found that the City is competitive with the market at all levels of the salary ranges, and with breakouts of the labor markets. Overall, the current salary structure for the General Union employee group is highly competitive with the comparable public sector organizations and competitive with the private sector and combined labor market and leading the market. Overall the current salary structure for Fire is competitive, but slightly lower, with the comparable public sector market at all salary range levels and for Police, the structure is highly competitive with the market ranges for both job titles. The salary structure for all other employee groups is highly competitive with all salary range levels, and across all labor market groupings. Recommendations from the Study include: 1) no salary structure adjustments are necessary based on the current comparison to the market; the City should continue with annual salary structure adjustments based on market trends; and, 2) the City should review the identified positions that are less than 90% of the market to  determine appropriate grade placement. Verdoorn concluded with a review of the positions analyzed. Discussion followed about: the methodology used in the study; how positions are matched to benchmarks; availability of survey data for elected officials; the number of employees below 90%; how salary adjustments vary between retention and recruiting; vacancy trends from comparable cities; and, how cost of living allowances are reconciled with the CPI-U. 5. Public Comment There was none. 6. Executive Session A. Preparing for contract negotiations or negotiating with employees or employee representatives pursuant to SDCL 1-25-2(4) A motion was made by Council Member Neitzert and seconded by Council Member Cole to enter Executive Session at 4:37 p.m. Roll call vote to enter Executive Session. 7 Yes: Barranco, Cole, Merkouris, Neitzert, Selberg, Soehl, Starr; 0 No: (None). Motion Passed. A motion was made by Council Member Neitzert and seconded by Council Member Barranco to exit Executive Session at 5:01 p.m. Voice vote to exit Executive Session. 7 Yes: Barranco, Cole, Merkouris, Neitzert, Selberg, Soehl, Starr; 0 No: (None). Motion Passed. 7. Adjournment Council Chair Curt Soehl adjourned the meeting at 5:01 p.m. Thomas M. Greco, City Clerk