Gardner Council to Study Proposal to Revise Nonunion Compensation Schedule; Finance Committee Referral Approved

A majority of Gardner City councilors voted Monday to send a proposed ordinance that would replace the city’s nonunion compensation schedule to the Finance Committee for further review and study.

The measure, introduced on the agenda as “an ordinance to amend the City of Gardner Chapter 8 (personnel) to replace Attachment 1, Schedule E (nonunion compensation schedule),” prompted an extended discussion about how the proposed salary grid was developed, its near- and long-term cost and how employee pay would be allocated across the general fund and enterprise accounts.

The proposal discussed at the Committee of the Whole would put 19 department heads and about 32 additional nonunion employees onto a multi-step grid. Mayor Brown said the working group that developed the draft included the city auditor, John Richard; Director of Public Works Dane Arnold; IT Director Bob O’Keefe; City Engineer Rob Oliver; City Assessor Christine Kumar; and HR Director Amanda Morris. The mayor said the working group met roughly five times this spring and that the salary survey contractor used a 50th-percentile comparison against 16 other communities to create minimum, median and maximum ranges for comparable positions.

Councilor Hegland, who opened the substantive discussion, said a grid could reduce subjectivity in raises but criticized missing documentation tying the salary-study findings to the mayor’s proposed figures. Hegland said the packet lacked a clear…