MOUNT VERNON — Council members spent an hour on Monday night listening to analyses of the city’s compensation package, organizational structure, and the process for bringing on board new employees.
Heidi Miller of Clemens-Nelson and Associates presented the results of the compensation study and organizational analysis. The evaluations cost $11,800 and $18,500, respectively. Council member Samantha Scoles requested the assessments earlier this year.
Implementing the recommendations will increase the city’s payroll by $260,000 for the 30 current non-bargaining unit positions and also include creating several new positions.
Miller said the top goal of the wage assessment is to deliver a pay scale that gives the city a legally defensible rate of pay.
Clemans-Nelson’s proposed wage scale creates 10 pay grades for non-bargaining employees. Pay ranges from $18.34 an hour to $54.62. A set percentage between the minimum and maximum pay in each grade, as well as a set percentage between pay grades, provides room for growth and promotion as employees gain experience and additional training or certification.
Miller said the scale’s $54.62 maximum is designed to coincide with an employee topping out at the end of his or her career.
The second goal of the assessment is to see where employees fall compared to the marketplace.
“The goal is to get the employee as close to mid point as possible,” Miller said. “You want employees to be paid the market rate.”
Getting current employees to that mid point will cost $260,000 in additional payroll plus nearly $46,000 in benefits. Miller said the new pay rates can be phased in over three years. A three-year phase-in will increase payroll by $86,000 to $87,000 a year.
To create the wage scale, Clemans-Nelson surveyed 14 cities. Cities include Mansfield, Ashland, Coshocton, Newark, Marysville, Delaware, and Bucyrus.
The wage scale spans 30 positions ranging from tax income administrator and probation officers to the safety-service director and police and fire chiefs.
Organizational Analysis
The organizational analysis covers the public works, engineering, and public utilities departments.
Public Works, which was restructured in June 2020, has three divisions, with an assistant director over each division: Streets/Storm water, Parks/Recreation, and Buildings/Cemetery. Support personnel include two crew leaders; 16 technicians, equipment operators, and maintenance workers; and 15-20 seasonal employees.
A director of Public Works oversees the department.
“Overall, we felt the structure was pretty solid,” Miller said.
The exception is lack of clarity between maintenance workers and equipment operators. Miller recommended better definition of a career path to show maintenance workers the path toward advancement.
Relating to engineering, which has seven full-time employees, Miller recommended the following:
•Fill the vacancies
•Reclassify the assistant to the engineer to a project engineer position
•Create a “true” assistant engineer position (must hold P.E. professional engineer designation)
•Create a project manager position
•Move the property maintenance enforcement officer from administration to the engineering department (The PMEO previously was under administration but was reclassified some years ago due to span of responsibilities also falling under safety-service.)
Miller estimates the pay scale for the assistant engineer position at $37.69 an hour (about $78,395/year) and $25.66 for the project manager ($53,372/yr).
“This gives you something we think you can actually do,” Miller told council, referring to reorganization table No. 1 with 10 full-time employees.
She said the second reorganization table, with 14 FTEs, is common among other engineering departments and is “something you can work toward.”
For the Public Utilities Department, which has 39.5 FTEs, Miller recommended a structure similar to Public Works. Utilities includes utilities, water, wastewater, billing, and metering.
Miller said that employee interviews identified several areas of concern:
•It is difficult for the chief operators to act in a true supervisory capacity.
•There is no incentive to receive additional certification.
•The chief operators are stuck in the office and not readily available to help when needed.
•Some employees are in a position that does not suit their skill set.
•There is disconnect between management and employees.
Clemans-Nelson recommends restructuring into three divisions with three assistant directors: water, wastewater, and distribution/collection. Other recommendations are to phase out the assistant lab tech position, utilities foreman, and meter reader/repair foreman. The two forman positions are vacant and already being phased out.
The recommended restructure remains at 39.5 positions.
To complete the analysis, Clemans-Nelson met with administration, surveyed and interviewed employees, and reviewed job descriptions.
Onboarding Development
Mayor Matt Starr presented the results of an onboarding survey among city employees. Onboarding is the process of integrating a new employee into the norms and culture of an organization. It includes compliance, culture, clarification, and connections.
About 50% of employees responded. Starr said the purpose of a proper onboarding strategy is to reduce the learning curve, ensure a good fit with the agency, and retain employees.
Survey results showed that previous and current city efforts in these areas is passive rather than proactive. Specifically, the questions relating to explaining expectations and policy skewed toward the negative.
The administration and Human Resources Director Maureen Perry are taking steps to reverse the negatives. Specific projects include creating/revising the policy manual and employee handbook, adding training on records requests and social media, and explaining pension and compensation issues.
In the area of clarification, greater emphasis will be given to explaining attire, lunch protocols, and how each job relates to the city, among other ideas. For culture, plans include a buddy/mentor system, guided tour of the city, and explaining how administration and council work together.
Connections-related ideas include explaining the chain of command, connecting to local resources, and meeting council members, the mayor, and safety-service director.
