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HomeMy WebLinkAbout082914 CC MinThe City of West University Place A Neighborhood City CITY COUNCIL STAFF Bob Fry, Mayor Michael ROss,Qw Manager Same Sample, Mayor Pro Tan Alm Pevoq CiryAummey Ed Henrhoem Coamilmember Thelma Lev. Ciry SUremry loan Lohman, Cmmlmember Dick Yeble, Councdmom'e, CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES The City Council of the City of West University Place, Texas, met in spedal/w rkshop session on Friday, August 29, 2014, in the Municipal Building Conference Room, 3000 University Boulevard, West University Place, Texas beginning at 11:30 a.m. Agenda Items ware as follows: 1. Call to Color Mayor Fry called the meeting to order at 11.30 a.m. Council and Stag in attendance were: Councilmembers Heathco0, Johnson and Yelps, City Manager Ross, Assistant City Manager /Public Works Director Peter, City Secretary Lenz, City Attorney Funny, Police Chief Walker, Fire Chief Taylor, Finance Director Daugherty, Human Resources Director Standoff, Parks and Recreation Director O'Connor, IT Director McFarland, Communications Manager Barber and Human Resources Car lis[ Garcia. Mayor Pm Tern Sample was absent. Also present was Lori Messer with Fox Lawson Associates (FIA), a division of Amur J. Gallagher 0 Co. 2. Compensation Bud City Council and staff will discuss the results of a recent employee compensation study. City Manager Michael Ross said this study is a result of Council's understanding that it was time to do this study to see how the City compares with the market. Mayor Fry maid he was on Couned when the last study was done in 2008 and at that time the City was way behind in the market and, therefore, bad to do some heavy adjustments. He said this Coined wants to be sure me City doesn't gel far behind in the market again and force future Copper's to have to play catch up again. Lod Messer with Fox Lawson Associates (FLA) first provided backgrountl about the study. She said her firm was engaged to take a look at compensation benefits for the City and make recommendations regarding the current state of compensaton benefits, identify the market cempieveness of specific employee benchmarks, the benefits and costs associated with the recommendatons, identify implementation and tamstion options, as well as review pay practices and policies and the overall compensation program. Gtv Council Minutes. August 2g, 201¢ Ms. Messer said the major consideration of the City was to establish market comparisons to the current level of compensation paid to all City job classifications. Ms. Messer reviewed the surveys compensation and classification objectives, which were: Compensation levels should be reflective of the local Houston area public sector market, • with pay grade midpoinle reflective of the 751° percentile of actual salaries whin the relevant labor markets. The 751 percentile means that 75 pecent of the organizations studied would pay less than West University Place and 25 percent of the organizations would pay more than West University Place. Development of a pay structure where Me midpoint is reflective of the defined labor market • 75° percentile rates of pay for the general structure. SWOm structures (public safety) were developed based on range minimum at the 750 percentile. • Internal alignment would remain constant. Additionally, City compensation objectives, which were: Develop a comwneation program that Is intomally equitable and externally competitive. Update me salary structure using resuAS from the market data. • Have a total compensation approach that includes benefits. • Assess market parity at the 75s percentile of actual salaries. Ms. Messer said FLA developed a joint survey questionnaire to wiled salary data The survey collaborators included the following organizations: City of West University Place, River Oaks Property Owners, City of Bellaire, City of Sugar Land, and the City of Friendswood and the results represent data from 23 organizations. Ms. Messer said Met FIA followed the United States Department of Justice and FTC guidelines that state there needs to be at least 5 job matches for a benchmark in odor to do any statistical analysis. In summarizing the data comparisons, Ms. Messer said it was found that tram an aggregate perspective, West University Place's current midpoints of all positions are lagging the 7501 percentile of market actual salaries. In response to Councilmember Vehle's concern as to what the positions were relative to the 5r peaceable, Ms. Messer said the positions were still lagging the market by 1.2 percent. She was not sure of Me actual percentage for the 751" percentile. Ms. Messer reviewed and explained come of the graphics in the survey. She said the cost for employees to be placed Into the proposed structure, based on years of service (with a minimum 3% increase and a maximum 15% increase, unless below range minimum), a approximately $398K, which represents approximately 53% of payroll. She said there are multiple implementation options available to the Ciry and are dependent upon budgetary constraints and overall implementation strategy. City Manager Ross explained that due to the City's annuallmerh increases, which are roughly 3 percent each year, the 5.3% is not outside of the norm. Me, Messer then reviewed and summarized the City's benefits. She said a customized data collection form was created to wiled benefits information in conjunction wish the salary survey. 2of5 City Council Minutes, August 29, gad She said the benefits survey included salary increases, formal salary ranges, salary range adjustments, variable pay plans, allowances, public safety allowances, alternative work schedule$, special recruiting strategies, retirement benerRs, paid leave (sick, vacation, holiday, personal, bereavement), leave carryover, medical, central and vision insurance, Ile insurance, retiree health insurance, and wellness program. Ms. Messer said FL found that the City's pay practical; and benefit program offerings are competitive with the compactor market: however, given the City's goal to be an employer of choice, consideration may want to be given to the following. • Increasing annual sick leave accruals to be more in line with benchmark organizations; and • Changing recruitment strategy to 7P percentile in older to attad and retain quality employees in all position classifications. Ms. Messer concluded with the following administrative recommendations. • Salary Structure Review /Updates • Annual Updates • Salary structure should be reviewed annually. Respective starting ales, job rates and mart maximums should be increased by a percentage that reflects the market trends and the City's hiring experience. The use of a dollar amount increase would compress the structure over time. • Long -Tenn Updates • The City should reevaluate its overall structure at regular intervals (2 to 3 years depending upon market movements) to ensure that its salary levels are consistent with the marketplace. • This would involve conducting a market salary study, such as was conducted hare, every 2 to 3 years (depending on the economy) to make sure that the City's pay scales and employee salaries remain competitive. Mayor Fry asked how many of the other benchmark cities pay into Social Security for employees. HR Director Standoff responded that all organizations except 5 of the 23 benchmark cities pay into social security. Note: This was confirmed again when answering a question by resident Steven Segal at the and of the presentation. Coundintember smile said a significant number of jobs are nonexempt and wondered d overgme was factored! into the pay. Ms. Messer said, no, because it is difficult to articulate the overtime factor when surveying organizations. Coundlmembar Yehle's said his concern Is whether West U offers more or less overtime than other organizations. Ms. Messer said that is a sterling issue rather than a base play issue. City Manager Ross sad he betieve; West U is below the overtime threshold compared to most cities. Councilmember Yehle asked R overtime is something that employees consider when interviewing. HR Director Standorf said no they usually are looking at the base pay and the benefits. 3 of City Council Minutes, August 29. 2014 Mr. Ross said staff tries to discourage overtime so that employees do not come to count on it as part of the base pay. Regaining commuting, Councilmember Yehle asked d the City could address the commuting issue by being a 50 percentile city with a commuting premium or a 75 percentile city, without a commuting Premium. Mr. Ross said he doesn't think they are mutually exclusive. He said Ts decided where you want to be in a market from a pay perspective and you hope ttafs enough to offut the commuting challenges, which is staffs hope for West U. Coundlmember Johnson asked if there are any jobs whereby staff can work from home. City Manager Ross said there are, but staff has not ratted out an aggressive telecommuting policy, but said it is something tat will be discussed more during the budget. Councilmember Yeble said he is concemad about the notion of longevity, whereby an employee gets more money for being around a long time. He said he wants an employee to be good before getting paid more. Ms. Messer said Ff.A does not advocate pay for longevity, but in the marketplace some organizations do. City Manager Ross said some cities do have another forth of longevity pay that is based on time in position. He said it is usually a monthly stipend for each month served ($5 per month in West UT He said it is completely separate from the pay range calculation and the amount varies by city. City Manager Ross sad if Council becomes comfortable with fine recommendations and they are approved in the 2015 Budget, staff would like to begin using some of the salary ranges, especially in the public safely world, for recruiting employees before the year ends. Councilmember Heathoott said he thinks it is going to continue to be difficult to record positions such as electrician, mechanics, etc., so the City might have to look at those positions in a different light. In response to Mayor Frys question to Ms. Messer as to how often should the City conduct a study, Ms. Messer responded 3 to 5 years. Nate: A copy of Me complete compensation survey is filed in Lasev(iche. 3. Consent Aaenda All Consent Agenda items listed are considered to be routine by the City Council and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Council member requests in which event the item will be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered in it normal sequence on the agenda. A. Chris Council Minutes Approve Minutes of August 11, 2014 City Council Meeting. Rerommerdad Action Approve Mimes. B. Appointments to the Friends of West U Parks Fund, Inc. Matters related to a resolution appointing Anna Stewart to Position y and Robin Murray to Position 15 ofthe Friends Board Recommended Action: Approve reaWNion. 4 of City Council Minutes, August 29, 2014 C. National Payroll Week Proclamation Matters related to a Proclamation proclaiming September 1 -5, 2014 as National Payroll Week. Ms. Ass ie Moorrey. Campbeller Councilmember Johnson moved to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. Councilmember Heathcott seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Fry. Heathoob. Johnson. Yehle Now None Absent: Sample A Ay With no further business, Councilmember HeathcoH moved b adjourn at 12:45 p.m. Councilmember Yehle seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Fry, Heathcott, Johnson, Yehle Noss: None Absent: Sample +(Si step A Pre 9yi Thelma A. Lenz, Ciry Secrets yX41 ♦ Data App ved 5&5