02 Council Minutes (05/07/01)MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL
MAY 7, 2001
The City Council of the City of Paris met in special session Monday, May 7,
2001, 6:00 P. M., Paris Junior College, Applied Technology Building, Room
1016, 2400 Clarksville Street, Paris, Texas. Mayor Michael J. Pfiester called
the meeting to order with the following Council Members present: John F.
Bell, Joe E. McCarthy, Richard Manning, John A. Carter, Jr., Kevin Gray,
and Benny Plata. Also present were City Manager Michael E. Malone, City
Attorney Larry W. Schenk, and City Clerk Mattie Cunningham.
Invocation was given by W. E. Anderson, Director of Finance for the City of
Paris.
Mayor Pfiester announced the purpose of the special meeting was to receive
a Salary and Wage Study for the City of Paris prepared by the Waters
Consulting Group, Inc.
City Manager Malone introduced Patrick Simmons from Waters Consulting
Group, Inc., located in Dallas, Texas. The City Manager said that council
members know the Waters Consulting Group from attending the TML
annual meetings. The company has a booth that everyone gravitates toward
because it displays an internet site listing salaries and wages of various
cities. The Waters Consulting Group maintains the internet site for the
Texas Municipal League and does a lot of work for cities in Texas. Mr.
Simmons will present the report which compares salary and wages in Paris
to other cities in the same market. He will also make a recommendation
regarding a grade-step pay plan.
Patrick Simmons with the Waters Consulting Group, Inc., came forward
introducing Kevin Russell, who is also a member of the Waters Consulting
Group, and was present to help answer any questions that the Council might
have.
Mr. Simmons said that the City Council had been furnished a copy of the
Final Report of the Comprehensive Compensation and Classification Study
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May 7, 2001
Page 2
for the city. Mr. Simmons called the City Council's attention to the first
section of the study which was a presentation of findings for review and
discussion purposes only, and the items that he was going to review included
the overview of the project; internal job analysis and evaluation process;
market data collection methodology; summary of Paris salaries versus
market; structure recommendations; and salary adjustment
recommendations.
On page 3, Mr. Simmons said, is a list of projects. The first one was the
Internal Job Evaluation Program which refers to the internal fairness of all
the positions in the city. He said his organization evaluated, based upon
the input from the city's employees, the value of several different
compensable factors that are found in every position. He said their firm
analyzed information that was supplied by city employees in the job
description questionnaire and placed those positions into an internal
hierarchy. He said they also designed a market-based salary structure for
exempt and nonexempt into the public safety positions. The report includes
salary adjustment recommendations and a series of guidelines for salary
implementation and administration to go forward. Mr. Simmons said they
delivered to the City Manager a detailed summary report of all the
marketing data that they have collected by position.
Mr. Simmons pointed out that the internal job evaluation was on page 4.
Two different systems were used to evaluate positions. One was for exempt
positions and one for non-exempt positions. He advised that public safety
positions were placed in a paramilitary ranking system.
Mr. Simmons stated that the summarized results of the evaluation were on
page five. He said his staff had looked at 26 exempted positions and 63 non-
exempted positions, and based upon their evaluation, they placed those 26
exempted positions into 11 grade levels or ranges, and the 63 non-exempt
positions were placed into 12 grade levels or ranges. Mr. Simmons again
said this did not include the police and fire positions.
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May 7, 2001
Page 3
Mr. Simmons went over the market data collection methodology that they
used, which was the Texas Municipal League 2001 Salary Survey of 22 cities
located in the North Central Texas and Tyler/Longview Regions for
Professional Survey Peer Group. Mr. Simmons said that for the non-
exempt/public safety survey peer group, they used 10 cities located in the
same area as the professional survey peer group. Mr. Simmons advised that
it is a very common practice for management and professional positions to
be measured against a much broader market than for the labor and trade
type of group.
Mr. Simmons said that on page 9 is the methodology for market data
collection from the Texas Municipal League. Waters Consulting also
collected what the structure information was, (minimum, midpoint, and
maximum). They reviewed the number of incumbents that have been
reported in each one of those divisions and the job title. He said page 10
presents a summary of the results. He advised that the exempt positions
were approximately 12% behind market, or 88% of the market. The non-
exempt positions were 6% behind market or 94% of the market. Police and
Fire were at 96% of the market.
On page 11, Salary Structure, are the factors they took into consideration
when designing the salaries. Mr. Simmons said they looked at the
appropriate width of the salary range. They looked at midpoint
progression from one grade to the next. They looked at the amount of
overlap that would be created between grades. They also took into
consideration the current city pay philosophy and financial resources to
determine what would be an appropriate recommendation.
Mr. Simmons pointed out that on page 12, Salary Structure, is the step and
grade that they are recommending for exempt and non-exempt employees.
Mr. Simmons advised that there are 10 steps for every grade or range, 4.25
percent between steps, and 45 percent range spread from beginning to final,
which is very competitive with the market. Mr. Simmons called the City
Council's attention to page 13, which is the impact this would be to the
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May 7, 2001
Page 4
city's budget. He told the City Council that the over all increase would cost
$425,00.00 on an annual basis, representing a 4.2% increase in payroll.
On page 14, Mr. Simmons said, were suggested recommendations for
implementation of the plan. It was suggested that all full time regular
employees be covered by this plan upon implementation, and Mr. Simmons
encouraged the continued use of the internal point factor job evaluation
program. He said the market-based structure should be adjusted annually
following implementation as required to track the cost of labor. Mr.
Simmons also suggested that the all over amount of funds allocated for
increases should be determined in the context of fiscal constraints and the
city's competitive position. Mr. Simmons said these recommendations
should be used as a framework for designing a pay program that is
internally equitable and externally competitive and that meets the needs of
the city.
At this time, Mr. Simmons went over the detailed report with the City
Council, and there was a question and answer session for additional
information from Mr. Simmons.
There being no further business, a motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem
Manning, seconded by Councilman Plata, to adjourn the meeting.
MICHAEL J. PFIESTER, MAYOR
ATTEST:
MATTIE CUNNINGHAM, CITY CLERK