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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, October 10,2011 Page 24 • receive as high of a salary as their peers in the private sector, and thus rely more on the overall benefit package for their family. Ms. Bacon concurred that, from a total compensation package that included wag- es and benefits, the public sector trended lower in total compensation. At the request of Councilmember Pust, Ms. Bacon advised that the comparison in- formation was done in 2009, and based on 2008 data, prior to current market con- ditions. Mayor Roe referenced a City Manager/Mayor meeting attended earlier today and the trend that most public employees would be receiving little or no salary in- creases, and offered similar or higher deductibles to that being offered by Rose- ville. Mayor Roe opined that peer communities appeared to be stepping back from the 100% richest packages that were the norm several years ago, and trend- ing toward what had been done in the private sector. While recognizing that the public sector was not in the same place as far as ratio for employer/employee premium coverage splits, the City was comparable to other government entities. Councilmember Johnson noted recent revisions made for the Fire Department re- tirement plan and related cost savings achieved, and commended Chief O'Neill for that innovation. Similarly, Councilmember Johnson opined that this was one of the few areas that the City could realize any monetary difference in the budget, while continue to balance that with how employees feel about coming to work and their incentives for doing so. While urging caution, Councilmember Johnson suggested that in light of zero percent increases and balancing out union contracts with non-union employees, he would like to see the future direction toward those trends indicated by Mayor Roe from meeting with peer mayors and city manag- ers. Mayor Roe suggested a future, more long-term view of the City's compensation approach, whether a 50/50 split, or where the City wanted to go with its benefit package and as a community. Councilmember McGehee concurred with Councilmember Johnson on one area that it was important right now for city employees to receive a decent health package, since there wasn't much else in the line of benefits being provided. Councilmember McGehee opined that if the City Council wanted to review and revise its package, that it consider such a policy and priority for 2013, rather than trying to do so at the last minute since the majority of negotiations have been completed for the upcoming year. Councilmember McGehee opined that it would be unfair to current staff and Ms. Bacon to seek a last minute change for em- ployees in 2012, whether union or non-union. While understanding that increases have been held very low to-date, Council- member Pust disagreed that City employees didn't have a fair and adequate com-