City to notify employees of wage‑study placements; labor agreements with police and fire fit within budget

City Manager Joe Moore told the council Sept. 17 that the draft 2026 budget incorporates the results of a recent wage study and that staff plan to send individual letters to employees indicating their scheduled January 1 salaries.

Moore said the letters are intended to “just eliminate any ambiguity” about pay steps. He asked the council whether staff should proceed; no council member objected to distributing the letters, although Moore and staff said they would wait to send any letters affecting library staff until the Fond du Lac Library Board completes its meeting on the wage study.

Nut graf: Administration will notify employees of new wage placements once outstanding library decisions are resolved; separately, Moore said the city has concluded negotiations with police and fire labor unions and that the financial commitments fit within the presented budget.

Moore noted that Archer had communicated wage‑study results to employees previously and that the city did not want to be “presumptuous” about exact step placements before confirming final decisions. He told the council staff intends to send the personal letters through department heads or by mail in the next few days after library board actions are complete.

On labor agreements, Moore said negotiations with unions for fire and police are finished and that Chad Wade will present the agreements to the council at the next meeting. “The commitments between both parties of fire and police fit within the budget,” Moore said.

Ending: Council did not block the distribution of employee letters and asked staff to coordinate with the library board before sending letters that affect library employees; formal labor agreements will be presented to council in the next meeting for review.