2013-12-12 Minutes Salary Commission

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Salary Commission December 12, 2013 Ms.Nitahara stated that she also updated their booklet with"Exhibit 6" entitled, "Comparison of Executive Pay Rates for State and Counties" (SEE ATT. B) and "Exhibit 7" entitled, "Comparison of County Department Data and Resident Population" (SEE ATT. C)that contain the new changes in salaries, which can be compared with the salaries of other jurisdictions. Mr. Hermes directed the Commissioners attention to the document entitled, "Comparison of Executives and Subordinates Salaries" (SEE ATT. D). He stated that they examined the highest paid subordinate in each department and mapped out their anticipated salary at certain points in the future as it relates to the existing collective bargaining agreements—most of which go through June 30, 2017. Mr. Hermes explained the methodology of the information. Every subsequent dollar value that they see is a function of the subordinate, and it is the function of an executive order that mirrors a collective bargaining agreement, and that the increase in salary is governed by the collective bargaining agreement. As an example, referencing the "Director of Human Resources,"under the "Highest Paid Subordinate"the column with the date "07/01/14"—the employee would receive $94,386 at that time. For clarification purposes,the Director of Human Resources salary is $99,000 and the highest paid subordinate's salary on July 1, 2014 would be $94,836. Ms. Stroh compared the salaries of the police chief and fire chief and inquired why there wasn't an adjustment to the fire chief's salary in January 2014. Mr. Hermes stated that recently there's been an arbitrator issue regarding the decision and award for the fire interest arbitration where there are increases associated with that. In general,there's a 4% increase with step movement for three years; and on the fourth year,there's a 5% increase with step movement(not compounding), and it's roughly a 17% increase in base salary over a period of four years. Mr. Hermes pointed out that now the fire chief's salary has been tied to the police chief's salary and, at this time, any increase in the highest paid subordinate in the Fire Department would not reach the level of the fire chief. Mr. Hermes stated that another reason that the highest paid subordinate salaries for the fire chief was not included is because the cost items of the arbitration decision needs to be approved by all legislative bodies in the respective counties in order for the cost items to be official. Given the timing and because the State does not employ any firefighters, we would need to wait until the next legislative session, and anticipate that it will become official sometime in April/May, in which case, there will be some retroactive actions occurring at that time. Page 3