Agenda

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16.

City Council Regular Meeting

Meeting Date:

12/19/2023

BACKGROUND

As presented to Council at the Pre-Budget Retreat in March 2023 and affirmed through the budget process, the top budget priority for FY 23-24 was employee compensation. At the June 20, 2023 City Council meeting, Council approved an agreement with Public Sector Personnel Consultants (PSPC) to conduct a comprehensive classification and compensation study. The primary goal of the study was aligning baseline compensation with the market, which will help to recruit and retain qualified staff. In addition to market evaluation, the study provided an opportunity to evaluate the City’s job titles and job descriptions.

The Public Safety Pay Plan was redesigned to address concerns with the current plan. These concerns include narrow pay scales; for example, at the officer rank the current pay scale range is approximately $57,700 - $70,000, a 21% range. The proposed pay scale now extends the range to approximately 37%. These broader ranges increase earning potential at each rank. Additionally, the proposed plan does not include overlap between the ranks, which will further address the existing compression issue. Lastly, the new pay plan offers a 4% increase every year, while the current plan averages 3.25% every two years. Due to this change, Public Safety will no longer receive merit increases and these planned step increases would begin in FY 24-25. This new pay plan will bring all Public Safety entry level positions up to market.

Key findings to note:
- Public Safety makes up 44% of the workforce and approximately 59% of the total cost will be to implement the Public Safety Pay Table.
- Sworn/Certified Police, Fire and EMS employees will be placed in the new Public Safety step plans according to their current earned step.

Additional results from the study include:
- The City will maintain two separate pay plans – Unified (non-public safety) and Public Safety (sworn/certified personnel).
- Job titles and job questionnaires were reviewed for every position. Some job titles are going to change so that they better reflect the work being performed.
- Pay grades for 77% of the non-public safety jobs surveyed were 5% or more below market. These positions will be adjusted upward to the appropriate grade.
- In-grade progressions will be used to place employees in the new pay grades with a cap at mid-point. Placement considers time in position and employee's pay rate within their pay grade. Factors such as salary at time of hire and amount of progression in the grade may exclude some employees from receiving an in-grade progression. This applies to the Unified Pay Plan only.
- Department Head positions and higher will be given a lower increase than the market rate study proposes.

Study implementation will be effective 12/30/2023 and employees will see pay adjustments (if applicable) on the January 19, 2024 pay date. Employees will also receive individual notification of title and/or pay changes (as applicable). For those employees in the Unified Pay Plan, merit is not budgeted in the current FY 23-24 budget and the plan is to budget for one in FY 24-25.

GOAL

To approve the implementation plan of the proposed classification and compensation plan.

COMMUNITY BENEFIT

By having properly classified positions and offering competitive total compensation packages, Schertz will be better situated in the market to recruit and retain top talent.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDED ACTION

Recommend Council approval of the Classification and Compensation Implementation Plan.

FISCAL IMPACT

$1.9 million was allocated in the FY 23-24 budget to implement the results of the classification and compensation study. However, the actual cost is approximately $2.3 million. Staff anticipates being able to absorb this amount in the annual budget through budgetary savings and additional revenues.

RECOMMENDATION

Recommend Council approval of the Classification and Compensation Implementation Plan.

Attachments
Draft Public Safety Pay Tables
Draft Non-Public Safety Title Changes-Grade Placement
PSPC Class Comp Presentation