Salaries and wages for city employees is a key topic for the Motley City Council, as it works to put together the 2023 budget.
In September, the Council voted to hire Public Sector Human Resources Consultant Paul Ness to complete a wage study. The decision to move forward with the study was, in part, due to Police Chief Jason Borash’s request to the Council to explore a different pay scale and structure.
During special budget work session Monday, the Council went over the results of Ness’ study. According to Mayor Mike Schmidt, he said that cities the size of Motley have been giving employees an annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) of 2% – 3% during the last five or six years. Motley’s COLA is between 3.5% – 4%.
“We have, as a city of Motley, traditionally offered a higher cost of living average raise than cities of our size,” Schmidt said. “Which was good to hear that we haven’t fallen on the other side of it.”
Steps and lanes for public employees vary from a 1% annual increase in pay to 5%, Schmidt said of the findings Ness noted in the study. The raises on the higher end of the range, however, were mostly in the last couple years and were the result of one-time funding during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study found that, overall, the city’s salaries and wages are competitive with like-sized cities. They are also “quite competitive” with the overall workforce when looking at regional statistics such as household income and per capital income.
At a previous budget meeting, City Clerk – Treasurer Darci Odden was tasked with figuring out the levy comparisons at different COLA increases for city employees. In September, the Council set its preliminary 2023 levy increase at 12.67%. It can decrease that percentage when it approves the final budget in December, but it cannot go any higher.
She gave the Council a spreadsheet that showed what the wages would be with COLA increases of 3%, 6%, 9% and with a different structure proposed by Borash. She also included a 4% increase, which would fall in line with a change to the city’s step structure proposed by Ness.
The city’s previous step structure includes a 2% annual increase in pay for the first five years of employment, and 1.5% after that. Last year, it changed that to 3% for every step with a fixed amount of COLA.
In 2021, city employees received a 2% COLA, after getting 1.5% in 2020 and 2019. They did not receive a COLA in 2018, she said.
Ness’ new step structure kept the 3% increase between steps and added an extra step, along with a minimum and maximum in each phase.
Right now, employees receive that 3% raise annually. However, the Council has the option to switch to a performance- or merit-based system, as well. It also could add additional steps. The top half of all pay grades could be left open, as well, which would leave increases up to the Council once employees hit the maximum.
“Right now we do performance evaluations, but they don’t affect your pay,” Odden said.
Schmidt clarified that the 12.67% levy increase was the entire amount, and not just the additional money for wages and salaries. Odden said that was correct. The Council can put as much as it wants out of that 12.67% toward employee wages, but that would also mean less money in the budget for projects, equipment and more.
“We could choose to not give another dime to things and projects,” Schmidt said. “We could choose to give that all to the employees. Or, we could choose to break that up accordingly.”
Council Member Nikki Bjerga asked Borash — who is one of two full-time employees in the Motley Police Department, along with Officer Cody Holtz — if he felt they needed additional officers. Borash said another part-timer would be nice, but it probably isn’t feasible.
“Finding part-timers is tough and keeping part-timers is even tougher, because typically they already have a full-time job somewhere, or they’re a part-timer just trying to get their feet wet to get their license so that they can get a job somewhere else easier,” Borash said.
He said hiring a full-time person would increase the chances of someone sticking around longer. That, however, would also depend on wages.
Schmidt pointed out that the city also currently has an opening for a part-time employee at City Hall. That position, he said, took a long time to fill the last time it was open.
He brought that up, he said, because when he talked about hiring someone full-time versus part-time, he was referring to all city departments, not just the police department.
“Part-time doesn’t always meet the needs of what we need to retain people,” he said.
Council Member Steve Johnson asked what a 4% COLA increase would mean in terms of department head wages in 2023. Borash said, using Ness’ structure, he, Public Works Director Bruce Brotherton and Odden would get a raise of about 20 cents per hour.
If they did not get the COLA in 2023, he said the structure actually suggests that he takes a reduction of 90 cents per hour in 2023.
“Basically it says that he thinks we’re getting paid too much already,” Borash said.
Mary Koenig, a member of the public who attended the meeting, asked if Ness’ study was “gospel” to the city. Schmidt said it was not. Along with Borash’s request for change, it was also done so new members of the Council, such as himself, could see where the city was at in terms of how it pays employees.
He added that, as a municipality, the Council is unable to give its employees bonuses or go outside of the salary structure in place without changing city policy.
“We have a very short and narrow salary schedule,” Schmidt said. “Other cities and municipalities, theirs is wide, it is deep. Where do they come in at? That’s not here. We accelerated.”
He said one of his goals in his new role as mayor is to figure out how to help employees maximize longevity. When someone starts, he said they want to know what their full potential would be. He hoped this process, though difficult, will help answer some of those questions when it is complete.
He stressed the importance of maintaining the employees that currently work for the city.
“I want to keep people,” Schmidt said. “There’s just such a cost to turnover, and it’s not just dollars and cents.”
Johnson pointed out that he understood Borash’s feelings regarding his wages. However, he pointed out that the city of Royalton recently hired a new police chief for $33.50 an hour. The police chief in Pierz, he said, makes $38 an hour, but does not have health insurance through his job.
“We’re kind of in the ballpark,” Johnson said.
Borash pointed out that the new hire in Royalton is a “new chief.” He has never held that position before. Borash, on the other hand, has been the chief in Motley for four years and was an officer with the department for three years before that. He said there is something to be said about having seven years working with the community.
He also said they do not get overtime. They have been instructed that if they go over on their hours, they are to take a day off or cut hours on a different day so they don’t go over. If he gets called out to an incident in the evening, he said, it not only cuts into family time, but he can work five or six hours on top of his regular eight hours without getting any bonus for doing so.
“I put in a lot of hard work and I’ve been getting high reviews since I started here,” Borash said. “Why go through all the extra work and do all the extra stuff? Why work hard to make the community better? Why volunteer all of my time if I get nothing out of it?”
Johnson said he understood, but his argument was applicable across the board. He said his experience was the same for all department heads.
For example, if a sewer clogs at night, he said Brotherton has to respond to the situation.
“The only difference, Steve, is the sewer doesn’t shoot back at them,” Borash said. “And that does happen in my job.”
Brotherton asked why the Morrison County Sheriff’s Office doesn’t handle calls when he and Holtz are both off duty, pointing out that residents pay taxes to the county, as well. Borash said they do, but they can only handle so much. He added that there is also a long response time to get from Little Falls to Motley.
Borash also pointed out that, if there’s a major incident in town, as the chief of police, it is his responsibility. At a recent incident, he said there were two Todd County deputies, three Morrison County deputies, a Staples Police officer and him that responded.
“But, I’m in charge of all of that,” Borash said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re a deputy, a sergeant, or another chief. It’s my call. It’s a Motley call, and I’m in charge of the whole situation. I have to own everything that goes good and bad with it.”
Schmidt said the Council has to take what it received from Ness and make some “tough decisions.” He said 20 cents per hour was not acceptable to him. He said a larger raise is needed to keep employees so the city can operate the way it does and continue to serve its residents.
“I, for one, I’m not afraid to keep grinding this out until we come up with something that keeps our very small employee group happy, and perhaps a few taxpayers not so much,” Schmidt said. “I’m OK with that. But I think we have to discuss deeper on the levy and how we want to spend that.”
He said he has worked in other public sector positions and knows how difficult it can be to retain and recruit people. When the steps and lanes aren’t competitive, he said “you will get looked over and you will get who’s left.”
At that point, he said the city would become a stepping stone for people to train and learn what they did not elsewhere.
Ultimately, Schmidt said the Council owes it to the taxpayers to be transparent throughout this process. Though they still have some things to work through, he felt the current employee group has a been a value to the city, and that “every now and they you have to go off of the grid for that.”
Another budget meeting was set for 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22, at Motley City Hall. Prior to that meeting, Schmidt told Odden he wanted to see “creative language” on how to accelerate people through the current steps and lanes, along with how policy can be shaped to meet that end.
“A lot of people come through our town,” Schmidt said. “That’s fine. We call them guests and visitors. I don’t want that to be our employees.”
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