City "peoples services" manager Karla Kochan speaks to council on Monday night about an updated model to determine wage grid ranges for city managers and non-union positions.--News Photo Collin Gallant
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The system of determining compensation for city hall managers and non-union positions will likely be revamped this spring, but figures weren’t made public Monday and won’t be voted upon until council can see the numbers in a closed session later this month.
Administrators state that eventually the figures will be accessible by the public, but an update to the 10-year-old system of evaluating pay has been underway for a year.
“It’s a structure change, not a budget increase,” said Jonathon Jackson, a compensation and benefits analyst in the city’s human resources department. “It supports competitiveness in the market, and flexibility for our workforce.”
He presented an overview of how the department hopes to weigh job performance, skill set and tenure to place employees on a wage grid ahead of changes in compensation that typically take place in June.
Council however, discussed at length how to handle the analysis, which is considered privileged until approved, and eventually the matter was postponed until after it could be viewed in the closed session ahead of the May 19 regular meeting.
“My concern is that we should do it in closed, or fully in open (council)” said Mayor Linnsie Clark. “We’ve just got the information and I’m sure some may benefit from having some time (to examine it).”
Wage grids for about 1,000 unionized workers, firefighters and police officers are updated when new contracts are negotiated, typically every few years, and publicly available on the city’s website and through the province’s Jobs Ministry.
Out of scope employees and managers haven’t seen their process for compensation updated since 2013. At that time, council generally agreed with the changes in closed session before bringing the update to an open meeting for approval.
On Monday, council discussed at some length how to accomplish the feat this year, with some members suggesting a mid-meeting closed session, and others asking for a delay.
The new framework would funnel analysis into several categories, including job evaluation criteria, such as education, experience and accountability, or matching local jobs to similar positions in other communities.
The city would then match the 50th percentile of mid-range salaries offered, and then benchmark against related increases. Changes would also allow the city to offer one-fifth more in order to retain and reward premium class employees who have unique or highly sought after skills, or distinguished service.
“There are only six positions and all sorts of reasons why they’re there, including (niche) skill or tenure,” said city human resources manager Karla Kochan. “Once the grid is approved, we would do further analysis.”
Three different classes would also be considered where large discrepancies may exist between them, like corporate administration, engineering and energy divisions positions.
On a question about gender pay equality from Coun. Alison Van Dyke, staff said the city will also study gender equity levels in compensation every two years.
Legal bill debate delayed again
A motion for council to openly debate repaying $76,000 in legal fees that Mayor Linnsie Clark incurred in disputes with the city was again delayed on Monday.
Clark amended the agenda at the start to move the item to May 19. Last month, she also delayed the discussion stating a full briefing on the request was being prepared.
