Salary increases for top-level employees should be based on
merit and given for performance and innovation
Pay raises at Gilroy City Hall are fast becoming an insidious problem with no end in sight.
Part of the problem is that the city is treating its 42 top-level managers as a quasi-union group, failing to distinguish them from the rank-and-file, so to speak. Top-level employees, many of whom are managers, should should not be negotiating, for example, cost of living increases en masse.
Top-tier employees are – or should be – by definition entrepreneurial. The fact that the City Council has passed an ill-conceived “best of the best” policy calling for 42 top employees to be paid 10 percent more than their counterparts in a comparison group of cities recognizes that entrepreneurial fact.
Top-tier employees have skill sets that differentiate them from other employees at City Hall. They should be reviewed, rewarded and retained on a merit-only basis. COLA increases merely re-inforce the march to unionization, and the City Council and city administrator appear content to view that as “inevitable.”
Where will continuing to allow quasi-union negotiations lead?
If not to binding arbitration for top-tier employees, then to the nonsense that’s already happening. The top-tier employees pointed out, for example, that their increases have been lagging behind those given to police officers. Top-tier employees have “only” received a 31.5 percent salary increase since 2000, while police officers have enjoyed a 36.5 percent pay hike.
The escalation game is a simple one: Johnny got a bigger slice of pie and I want one, too.
The alternative is honest, thorough merit-based pay system for top employees at City Hall which allows those who earn it to be rewarded at a greater level, potentially, than even a COLA combined with a comparison-city increase would yield. That should include bonus pay for outstanding performance and/or innovation.
The oft-repeated adage, “City Hall should be run more like a business,” isn’t always applicable, but in this situation it should be gospel. If the city’s leaders don’t change direction on this – fairly and quickly – the escalation game based on a simpleton’s logic will prevail and our community will be far worse for it in the future.
