|
Salary Commission
<br />January 17, 2024
<br />How the interim salary was determined might be some—maybe not extensive conversation, I
<br />don't know what—if you're prepared, Director Sako, to address any of that, but I think that
<br />might be helpful and beneficial for you to understand.
<br />And two final points. I don't know—and maybe this is something legally I'll need to look into
<br />—
<br />I don't know that our 5% raise covers this position. It wasn't published, so I don't believe the
<br />5% would, theoretically, kick in for this particular position on July 1st because we didn't publish
<br />it for the public to have notice on.
<br />So, whatever we do—if we do something the same process, we would have to partake in. That
<br />means the drafting of proposed findings of fact, like we did this last go around, and we would
<br />publish that in the newspaper. We would come back and receive public testimony and then we
<br />would vote 30 days thereafter. We have to do that all over again for this position.
<br />So, that begs the question, how long, Director Sako—also in line with kind of how you guys
<br />came up with this salary—could the interim salary continue for? For example, is there a
<br />timeframe within which there has to be a formal salary set or, alternatively, I'm just thinking of
<br />ideas for this Commission to not have to repeatedly do the same job over and over again, while
<br />we still vet out exactly the nature of what this agency will be. Could the interim salary continue
<br />for, say, the year until we have a better understanding of what it actually entails for this
<br />Commission to, maybe, be in a better place to determine an appropriate amount.
<br />`Cause I guess I wonder thinking out loud, what findings of fact you would have when we
<br />don't know exactly what this agency will be doing. So, I just throw that out as an idea so I can
<br />ensure that my Commission is able to best articulate how it wants to proceed, if it's ready to do
<br />so.
<br />MS. SAKO: Great questions, if I can answer. Also, just in case I didn't say it, I've only been in
<br />this job since January lst, so it started out with Lee Lord, our previous Managing Director to,
<br />kind of, establish some of this without the advertising for the job, obviously, with the help of the
<br />Department of Human Resources.
<br />So, at the time, it was determined this position would be something like an EM3 that is how
<br />we, kind of, determined that salary amount and this was the middle of that range. We are hiring
<br />the person on contract, partly because the salary wasn't set, partly because it's new and we need
<br />to, kind of, establish the department. So, I believe that contract could go for some time—looking
<br />at the Director of Human Resources—such as a year. It's not uncommon for us to have contracts
<br />for a year.
<br />And so, but we did, at the time, make it to an EM3-type salary at the middle of the range, just as
<br />a place to start, because a lot of—most of our other agency heads are also EM3's—Civil Defense
<br />is an EMS.
<br />Page 9
<br />
|