Staff presented multiple personnel‑cost scenarios tied to retirement‑match and pay adjustments and described HR requests to modernize classification, compensation and performance evaluation systems.

Finance and HR staff outlined the cost of increasing the Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) employer match: moving the city match from 5% to 6% would add roughly $297,000 to the general fund; moving to 7% would be roughly $600,000 for the general fund (staff provided fund‑level estimates for water and airport funds as well). Staff also provided per‑increment estimates for general‑pay adjustments (about $96,000 per $0.25/hour across the general fund and roughly $103,000 per 1% increase, as examples) and said longevity and existing ICMA contributions offset some increased employer match cost.

HR requested a one‑time classification and compensation study (estimated $30,000) to update job descriptions and align pay competitively, and an employee performance‑evaluation tool (about $9,000) to support a shift from step‑based pay toward pay‑for‑performance. Staff said some functionality of the proposed ERP/ENCODE modules could duplicate the online evaluation tool if the ERP modules are adopted.

Staff emphasized recruitment and retention as the driving rationale and noted the city is behind other municipalities on TMRS match, which affects recruitment of candidates from nearby markets. Council asked questions about employee uptake of the current 1% voluntary ICMA match and whether TMRS changes would be retroactive; staff said any match change applies prospectively per TMRS rules and noted employees can run “what if” scenarios using TMRS tools.

No final council decision was taken; staff asked council to consider these personnel scenarios as they review the budget.