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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0194.001 2008-2010 KENNY G. GOODENOW RODNEY OSHIRO County Clerk t, Deputy County Clerk Moiling Address: ~rE cG•N~'~~ Business Address: (Former County Building) 333 KFlauea Avenue, Second Floor 25 Aupuni Street Ben Franklin Building Hilo, Hawai'i 96720 County of Hawai`i Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Office of the County Clerk Telephone: (808) 961-8255 Facsimile: (808) 961-8912 N CS d l~ ~O MEMORANDUM c, Date: March 25, 2009 Cr To: J Yoshimoto, Council Chair __10 4 and Members of the County Council L _ cn cri From: Kenneth G. Goodenow, County Clerk' Subject: Bill 50; Comm. 194 The Salary Ordinance The Salary Ordinance is a Human Resources document; it is not a budget document. A good way to explain the Salary Ordinance is to consider the different methods used to determine employee salaries in our office. Pay for civil servants can increase by two methods. First, there are negotiated across-the-board salary increases (for example the two 4% increases under the current HGEA two-year contract). In addition to these types of raises, civil servants receive step movements based on length of service. These step increases, can be suspended during management-union negotiations, but are usually retroactively imposed once settlement is achieved. I can recall only one instance when a contract actually suspended step movements (employees were still given credit for their time, but payment was delayed from the date when a step should have taken place until the end of that fiscal year). Currently a negotiation impasse extension is in place. Pursuant to a memorandum of agreement, if no agreement is made through mediation, arbitration will commence on September 4, 2009. By December 21, 2009, an arbitration decision must be in place for submission to the 2010 legislature. Step movements will likely be suspended from July 1, 2009, until a new contract is ratified. Appointed employees in our office not covered by the salary commission have historically received pay increases by only one method, step-advancement pursuant to the salary ordinance. Comm. No. I~^"I_ Serving the Interests of the People of Our Island Ref. To: F Ci Hawaii County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer - Y:. ynt~ MARS 5 2009 J Yoshimoto, Council Chair March 25, 2009 Page 2 Like civil servant positions, a range of salary is provided for. Appointed employees, including those subject to the salary commission, ideally receive step advancements every two years of service. The steps of the salary ordinance were set 5% points apart to provide for a typical annual increase of 2.5%; this was based on historical union raise averages (again, however, no increase can be given without approval of the Chair or if money for such increases is not in the salary and wages portion of the budget). No civil servant in our office is at the maximum level of their salary range. Six employees are at "Step A". Our civil service employee with the highest step level is at "Step IT' (the highest step being an "L"). The median step level for civil servants is near the center of the pay scale, which is appropriate given the range of those employees' lengths of service. The pay scale in the salary ordinance, however, has become skewed. The reason for this is simple. During the 2004 -2006 Council term, one step increase as usual was provided to all appointed staff. With the start of the 2006 -2008 Council term, however, a management decision was made to let individual council members determine the step levels of their respective district staff. I supported this decision because I felt that it was appropriate that council members determine the experience levels of their staff and how this should be translated in terms of pay. In reality, what happened was that 90% of district employees were moved to the highest possible step levels on the salary ordinance. This term, all council aides and legislative assistants are at the highest step levels. The workers at LRB, on the other hand, are generally in the middle of their salary range (on average at the 4th step out of 10 steps). This explains the request for additional steps for positions CA-1 (Council Aide) and CLA A (Legislative Assistant). The three other additional step increases proposed in the new salary ordinance are for members of the Chair's staff. The increase of pay levels for Council district staff described above compounded the imbalances in the salary ordinance at the beginning of this year as almost all of the current chair's employees were either former Council Aides or Legislative Assistants and an attempt was made to minimize any decreases in pay. Another consideration was that these positions should be comparable to their civil service counterparts. For example, the position of executive assistant was paid roughly the same as a civil servant at the SR-15 level. Given the level of responsibility for the executive assistant position and especially given the level of discretionary decision making required, I also supported the decision made during the 2006 - 2008 term to increase this salary to one comparable to the SR-17 level. Given our current budget crises, I do not support increasing the pay for this position further, but the salary range should be comparable. This explains the request for additional steps for positions EA-2 (Deputy Executive Assistant), CA-2 (council Aide to the Chair), and SA-1 (Special Assistant). There were two reasons why I requested a postponement of the Salary Ordinance at the March 17, 2009, Finance Committee Meeting. The first reason was to provide better information on the nature of the salary ordinance; which I have tried to do above. I apologize that I was not Serving the Interests of the People of Our Island Hawaii County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer J Yoshimoto, Council Chair March 25, 2009 Page 3 able to provide this more detailed information at the March 17th meeting. The second reason was to provide salary information in the context of our overall budget as would be presented at our April I" program review. Given the amount of cuts made to our budget, I believe it reasonable to provide the chair with some flexibility regarding salaries for particular positions, especially as some staff will be expected to "do more with less." A case in point is the council aide to the chair position. The person filling that position is continuing to do the same work they did during the prior council term at less pay. In addition, substantial new responsibilities have been added, including the duties of secretary to the charter commission. While Chair Yoshimoto has made it clear that we are not increasing salary and wages in the budget, if our office is able to find other ways to save this money by reducing overtime, etc., I'd like the Chair to be able to offer a salary increase if he so desires as it would be deserved given the work involved. While I agree that a blanket approach to salaries and wages is understandable (even if only for the sake of appearances), fairness is also an important consideration, especially given the overall reduction in our office's budget. Of course, it_is the Council's prerogative and duty to adopt the final version of the salary ordinance as the Council seems fit. Thank you for this opportunity to provide'input regarding the budget and operations of our office. Serving the Interests of the People of Our Island Hawai'i County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer