Gilroy
– The city’s top managers are all
”
equally valuable
”
members of a team that deserve an across-the-board bump in
earning potential, city councilmen agreed Monday night.
Gilroy – The city’s top managers are all “equally valuable” members of a team that deserve an across-the-board bump in earning potential, city councilmen agreed Monday night.
Police captains, fire division chiefs, senior planning engineers and others who are among Gilroy’s group of 40 non-unionized managers will see their pay ranges shift upward by thousands of dollars in coming months or years. About half of them will get instant raises to bring them in step with their peers at Gilroy City Hall and their counterparts in other nearby cities. City Clerk Rhonda Pellin will receive the highest raise of $14,980, followed by Human Resources Director Leann McPhillips and Finance Director Cindy Murphy, each of whom will get $13,789 raises this year.
The pay package won easy approval Monday night in a vote of 5-1-1, based largely on arguments that Gilroy must increase managers’ pay to recruit and retain people in leadership positions.
“Everything in this city is better than in surrounding cities,” Councilman Dion Bracco said. “That comes at a price. If we want the best, we have to pay for the best.”
Though the sentiment carried the day, it was not unanimous. Councilman Craig Gartman, the lone dissenting vote, called the pay increases the “most fiscally irresponsible action” ever to come before council.
“I still have yet to see any proof that this needs to happen,” Gartman said. “This is not simply a raise. It’s not a salary compensation…To me this is a pyramid scheme, because if something happens at the bottom, everyone else gets something.”
Under the new system, city managers must always earn at least 15 percent more than those they supervise, and 10 percent more than their peers in nearby cities. Exempt employees are also entitled to raises in step with the best deal negotiated by any of the city’s three labor unions. For instance, if the union covering planners, secretaries, and the majority of City Hall employees negotiates a three-percent raise, all exempt managers would be entitled to the same raise. Likewise, if an outside arbitrator awards the fire union a 10-percent raise, all city department heads – not just the fire captain and fire chief – are entitled to the same raise.
“The action that we take tonight will have a small impact today,” Gartman said, “but as we continue down the road and as these 10 percents and 15 percents start piling up, there are going to be major ramifications.”
The new “salary schedules” will cost the city $102,000 for the first half-fiscal year. Annually, the city would be on the hook for an additional $206,000 in salary and benefit payments, with the potential for up to $383,000 in yearly costs once all managers max out their earning potential. Those figures do not reflect additional costs that could result from pay bumps linked to union-negotiated raises.
The pay system approved Monday night emerged in large part because of “compaction” – when the salaries of unionized workers creep too close to those of their supervisors. Compaction has been especially acute in the police department, where union-negotiated raises and overtime earnings have allowed police sergeants to earn as much as captains, who are higher on the chain of command but ineligible for overtime.
“That is a problem with morale. That is a problem with marketing,” City Administrator Jay Baksa said. “Why would anyone want that position if they could earn more in their current job?”
Gartman was not the only one with reservations about the plan. Councilman Russ Valiquette questioned whether a finance director should earn the same as a fire chief or police chief, since public safety officials find themselves making life-and-death decisions. The new system would align pay for department heads so that the city’s community development director, fire chief and human resources director would all have a salary cap of $174,000. They would work toward that figure based on annual performance reviews and, potentially, raises linked to union pay bumps. Valiquette also questioned the rationale behind giving a manager a raise when people not under his or her command negotiate a pay bump.
Baksa replied that it’s a “bit of an overstatement” to say that fire and police chiefs make life-and-death decisions, and that a finance director can prove equally vital.
“You can’t say one of them is more valuable than another,” Baksa said. “Do they make different decisions? Yes. But they’re equally valuable to this organization.”
Councilman Peter Arellano also took issue with valuing one city staff position more than another.
“You can have your health, but if you’re constipated, you know what the most important part of your body is,” said Arellano, the council’s sole physician. “Everybody makes decisions that affects our health and well-being.”
Bracco said the pay raises are not the perfect solution, but a better alternative than having exempt employees form a fourth union. Last year, the city lost a bruising contract fight with its fire union. The city is currently negotiating with the 135-member union that covers the majority of City Hall employees, and will begin negotiations once again with the 40-member fire union this summer. Negotiations with the 62-member police union are scheduled for 2008.
In Gilroy, it is standard for police chiefs, fire division heads and other top managers to represent the city in negotiations with labor unions. Gartman pointed out that under the new pay system, the same people who negotiate on the city’s behalf will stand to benefit when union workers get big raises.
“How could we ask department heads to work hard for the best deal for the city, when they know that when they give a three or four percent raise to the union, they’re going to get the same raise?” Gartman said. “I would hate to even think about putting people in that position.”
