2013-12-12 Minutes Salary Commission

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Salary Commission December 12, 2013 As an example, Ms. Toriano presented the following scenario regarding a salary schedule: Unit 13 receives an across-the-board 4% increase. The Commission can apply the same rationale and say that all exempts also receive a 4% increase. By having steps, you could move people up one step or take the whole salary schedule and increase it by 4%, and that becomes the new salary schedule. The opportunity to increase pay comes in two forms—across-the-board by just increasing the salary schedule and moving up one step (there's a 3% increase between steps). Ms. Nitahara pointed out that with the salary schedule, when a new executive was appointed the salary schedule provides that that executive will start at the A Step. It was developed such that an appointee would come in at the A Step, and every two years on their anniversary date, would move up to the next step. There were eight steps. After the mayor's second term,that appointee would leave and the new appointee would start at the A Step again. Ms.Nitahara explained that the reason why some appointees are up in the pay scale is because they were commission-appointed. They did not need to leave with the mayor, so they continued to receive these step movements and,therefore,their salaries are much higher than the newly-appointed that would start at the A Step. This is why we're trying to do the across-the-board increases so that the newly- appointed individuals could move ahead. Ms. Nitahara commented that when the Fire Commission appointed the new fire chief,they requested that his salary be moved up higher. The Commission has the authority to do so. Ms.Nitahara also stated that a problem arose when the same person was appointed from one mayor to the next and that the pay plan did not address that. In closing Ms. Nitahara informed the Commissioners that those were some of the things that they would need to consider and address. Mr. De Lima commented that this was discussed when he first served on the Salary Commission. He was never a fan of what was done regarding the tiered approach and step increases. Mr. De Lima stated that the tiered approach was first proposed in the early 1990's, which Mr. Michael Ben advocated,however, when he sat on the Council, he opposed it. It barely got adopted by the Salary Commission and was in effect before Mayor Kenoi was elected mayor. Prior to Mayor Kenoi coming on board, there was a freeze by the Salary Commission. Mr. De Lima agreed that it would be a good idea to take a look at the overall pay plan. He's stated before that it doesn't make sense the way we have different salaries for different cabinet members. The best example would be the Parks and Page 7