2003-02-10 WS Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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, t FINDINGS Those items that are not in agreement and cause disparity among employees include: 1. Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) for 2003: Unionized Employees - 3% Police Employees - 3 % Consultants and Vendors - 3% - 4% Non-Union Employees -1 % Administrative Fee Increase Proposal- 5% Past practice has been that employees were paid Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA's) because, as the result of a Council-initiated benefit and compensation study, * it was determined that Staff was underpaid when compared with similar communities. It was decided that by incorporating step increases at 4% with COLA's at 3%, City Staffwould ultimately be a market. But for whatever reason, the Council at the time decided to extend this wage structure over 10 years rather than trying to attain market in 3 to 5 years. As such, Staff has never attained market wage. While I understand the need to cut where we can, I don't think the salary of some staff is the way to do it or the place to start. Additionally, I agree with Mr. LePak that it is important to do what we can to retain the employees that we have. Not only is it expensive to do a recruitment, but it is time consuming for those involved. It takes a minimum of 6 weeks to initiate the recruitment process: 2 weeks posting in newspapers and within the organization; 2 weeks to receive applications; and 2 weeks to screen applications and to complete interviews. In addition, Council's approval is required and can take up to 2 weeks to get this on the agenda, depending on when the next regular meeting is; references need to be checked; and the selected employee may need to give an employer a two-week notice. In reality, if everything falls into place, the hiring of an employee on average takes about 8 weeks. In the mean time, a valuable employee has left the City of Centerville, taking valuable job information, City information and history with him/her. The remaining staff is left to take up the slack, which in turn, slows down the work that needs to get done. Once a new employee is hired and joins staff, time is required to train the new employee, again cutting into the productivity levels of staff To go further with this discussion, the City of Centerville only has nine (9) employees. These nine (9) employees are responsible for: Public Works- 1 Public Works Director/Building Official 1 Building Inspector - perform all duties associated with inspections of regulated structures; zoning and land use issues; Centerville had 49 single family dwellings (SFD) in 2002 with 1 building inspector; Hugo did 43 sfd wi 3 building inspectors; Ken also is administrative assistant when needed at City Hall.