If adopted, new salary scale would bump some starting PTC staffers’ paychecks upward by between 9% and 23%
The Peachtree City Council on Oct. 2 will consider a staff recommendation to accept one of the options included in the recent job classification and compensation plan and to amend the city budget by $640,000 to implement the plan by using cash reserves.
The resulting starting salaries — as outlined by City Manager James Pennington — would increase from 9 percent to 23 percent, depending on the position. Though not mentioned, most city employees would get commensurate bumps in pay, depending on their job classifications.
Pennington said the overall increase to the budget line item amounted to around 4 percent.
This change in pay scales comes less than two months after the council voted an “inverse” pay raise of 2 percent, with the difference being that lower paid workers would get higher bumps than more highly paid staffers. That earlier pay raise originally was due to go into effect in late October.
City Clerk and Public Information Officer Betsy Tyler objected to the expanded pay package being considered a second pay raise request within the past two months. Her explanation and timeline follow this story.
If adopted by the council, the new job classification and compensation plan would replace the current plan and would implement a new salary structure and classification for each staff position, with salary increases ranging from approximately 3-4 percent, said City Manager Jim Pennington. It is not an across-the-board change nor is it an inverse increase, said Pennington, adding that it would be a completely new plan.
Pennington in a Sept. 24 letter recommended that the council repeal the 2000 Employee Job Classification and Compensation Plan and adopt the recently presented 2014 plan. Pennington recommended that the council on Oct. 2 adopt the unmodified Option B presented by Condrey and Associates.
Citing examples of the entry level increases in the proposal, a certified police officer would go from $34,449 to $38,270 (increase of 11 percent), a firefighter/paramedic would go from $38,736 to $42,243 (9 percent increase), an accounting manager would go from $46,396 to $56,812 (a nearly 23 percent increase) and a street supervisor would go from $38,081 to $44,381 (a nearly 17 percent raise). Himself under contract with the City Council, Pennington said his position is not part of the proposed plan.
Pennington in the recommendation suggested the recently-adopted 2015 budget be amended to reflect the implementation of “unmodified Option B.”
“Since the general fund budget already includes $270,071 of funding towards the compensation plan, the FY 2015 budget impact of the new Employee Job Classification and Compensation Plan, Option B (unmodified), will be an estimated $640,354 based on an implementation date of Oct. 20. Additional funding needed for the compensation plan would be appropriated from cash reserves,” Pennington said.
Pennington said the Plan B option being recommended is based on the 50th percentile of the study and is slightly above the market average.
“When the last pay study was conducted in 2000, staff recommended the council consider approving the classification and compensation plan based on the 75th percentile,” Pennington said. “Given today’s economy, staff is conservatively recommending Plan B. While this plan does not solve all of the problems existing in the pay structure today, it does provide a new pay scale that is competitive in the relevant labor market and it further professionalizes and strengthens the administrative infrastructure of the city.”
Pennington said one of the issues impacted by the recent classification and compensation study has been the inability to fill some positions at the current minimum salary level. He said some new hires required having to go “way into the salary range” to accomplish.
The City Council on Aug. 21 voted 3-2, with Mayor Vanessa Fleisch and Councilman Terry Ernst opposing, to maintain the current millage rate at 6.756 and the current bond rate of .0332 and incorporate elements of Councilman Eric Imker’s plan into a new budget, including an “inverse scaled” pay raise of 2 percent. The pay raise give workers at the low end of the pay scale slightly over a 5 percent pay raise, while the higher paid employees would receive a .019 raise.
Here is Tyler’s statement:
“I wanted to clarify and correct the top story in today’s Citizen. Rather than being a proposed second pay hike, as noted, this is really a redistribution/expansion of the original request in the budget.
“Chronology:
“Aug. 21 – the staff proposed budget included a 3 percent salary increase placeholder for the pending job classification and compensation study implementation; Council revised the budget in multiple ways, including reducing that amount to 2 percent and directing that the “inverse” distribution be used.
“Sept. 4 – Staff returned to Council with FY 2015 budget amendments that included the reduction in the salary increase from 3 percent to 2 percent, but having that amount remain as a placeholder (undistributed) pending the results of the pay study. No salary increase goes into effect today.
“Sept. 16 – Council was briefed on the results of the job classification and compensation study by Condrey and Associates.
“Oct. 2 – Staff is asking Council to approve Plan B (unmodified) as presented by Condrey. The 2 percent in the budget (previously directed for the inverted raises on Aug. 21 but amended to be held pending the pay study on Sept. 4) would apply toward the total implementation cost as proposed in the memo (as noted in the budget impact section of the staff memo, page 50 of the online agenda packet).
“I’m going to post this online, but was hopeful a clarification could run in the print edition,” Tyler concluded.
