10-30-13 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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SPECIAL MEETING OCTOBER 30, 2013 Mayor Buttigieg: Thank you and good evening. I will be brief because much of what is discussed and contemplated in this bill had been discussed quite a bit both in this chamber and in public. But I would like to revisit the reason why the administration believes that it is so important to make these adjustments. We are in the process of working to insure that the salary structure of our City needs two very important criteria: Internal Equity and External Competitiveness. The idea with internal equity is that within our organization people who work in substantially similar levels of responsibility can be entitled to substantially similar levels of pay. I want to remind everybody that this is a salary fixing and an ordinance fixing maximum salaries. So that performance can always come into the equation in terms of whether an employee is paid the maximum salary allowable by law or something short of that. The principle of internal equity is that the maximum salaries associated with any position should reflect a comparable nature to other similar positions internally. When I speak about external competitiveness, I speak about the imperative for every organization including a government and especially one with the kinds of responsibilities that the administration of the City of South Bend has. To ensure that it is paying every position at a level that is consistent with the market. It is consistent with what other people doing similar jobs in communities nearby with similar costs of living are paid. While I cannot promise adoption of this ordinance will completely satisfy those goals and acknowledge that there is more work to be done to ensure that kind of external competitiveness and internal equity exits for every position in the city. I do strongly submit to you that this moves us in the right direction by a great deal especially when it comes to a number of positions that we are rightly challenged on last year when we were first requesting a number of salary changes for position that were mostly vacant. The question that was asked of us at the time was why are you only adjusting the salaries for positions that are vacant because you need to recruit for them. What about positions that are currently occupied, is it fair to people working in those jobs that you only seem to be contemplating salary changes for those that are vacant. While some of the contemplated changes are here are vacant, I would especially draw your attention to those at water works. Many of them are for positions that are currently occupied. Our goal in researching what the going rate is for these kinds of jobs was to make sure that we have a way to from what in some cases represent bargain basement salaries to move us into the middle of the pack. To put us somewhere close to the average of comparable cities and I think we can move from the back of the pack to the middle on these positions with these proposed changes. I also just want to note that we did make one amendment incorporating a suggestion from members of the Council, the position of Director of Community Outreach be given a raise of 10% consistent with what was suggested to us earlier. So that is one change you would note nd in the 2 Substitute Bill. We have a chance to better position our city to be internally equitable and externally competitive and we believe this a very important step on the path on a having a very robust salary structure for our city as a whole. Thank you. Chairperson White: Thank you. At this time I would like to ask our City Clerk to read into the record the various amendments. City Clerk John Voorde: Deputy Director of Public Works new position funded at $90,000; Deputy Mayor new title funded at $98,000; Director of Water Works currently funded at $69,721 to be $81,000; Executive Director of the Morris Performing Arts Center currently $76,775 to $90,000; Ordinance Violation Bureau Clerk currently $33,866 expected funding $39,643; Parks Superintendent currently $77,041 proposed $90,000. Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand: All of the other positions will be at 7% that will be read into the record. City Clerk John Voorde: Assistant Zoning Administrator $53,338; Building Commissioner $79,374; Chief Code Inspector $46,418; Chief of Staff to Mayor $66,751; Deputy Chief of Staff to the Mayor $63,413; Deputy City Controller $73,440; Director of Central Services $69,721 at present; Director of Community Outreach $45,000 to be $45,900; Director 311 Customer Service $52,000; Director of Code Enforcement $70,623; Director Communication Center currently $56,541; Director of Office of Sustainability $70,782; Director of Human Rights $55,347; Director of Streets $70,968; Director of Safety & Risk $53,040; Director of Water Works $69,721 we covered that one; Director Environmental Services $73,089 up to $81,000; Forester $53,836; Manager of Environmental Compliance $60,757; Network Engineer $54,737 that’s it.