Council approves move to merit-based pay for non-represented city employees

The Baker City Council on April 8 approved resolution 3974 to replace step-based pay increases for non-represented employees with a merit-based salary-range system and to adjust several job ranges.

Staff described the proposal as a shift from steps to a salary-range structure with yearly adjustments tied to the prior year's Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). "We're proposing resolution 3974 to move away from step increases and move to a paid form of merit based policy with a salary range," the presenting staff member said. The staff member added that the recommended annual CPI-W increase for the coming year is 2.7 percent.

The resolution also includes targeted range increases for the finance director, fire chief and police chief positions, a change staff said was intended to bring those pay ranges closer to peer cities and to avoid compression that discourages internal promotion. Other changes described were reclassifying a data-analyst/management-assistant position into a union-covered role, removing an eliminated fire training captain hourly line, adding a tenant position and a community development coordinator role, and renaming the public safety officer manager to office manager.

Council discussion touched on sustainability and fairness. One councilor questioned whether moving to merit-based increases while asking residents for a small public-safety fee was disingenuous given potential future union-negotiated increases. Staff replied that union contracts remain separate and that the merit approach was designed to preserve flexibility and to avoid the kind of long-term compression that had previously left supervisors underpaid relative to subordinates.

Councilor Dilshid moved the motion and Councilor Cole seconded. The motion carried with no recorded opposition.