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Council reviews HR budget, new HR director and civil-service items; salary request scaled back
Summary
New HR director Matthew Fisher summarized the HR/ civil-service budget, including a proposed HR director salary request and contractual-services needs; council asked for comparables, kept the proposed hire but asked staff to reduce the proposed salary request and to provide training cost breakdowns.
The council met the new human-resources director, Matthew Fisher, and reviewed the HR and civil-service budget pages on April 15.
Fisher said the proposed HR director salary in the packet was $100,000 based on comparables and that the recommended HR specialist position was budgeted at $63,000. He reviewed personnel and line items including contractual services for benefits-advisor work and union negotiations and training and education allowances. Fisher said some current accounts are duplicates in the financial system and proposed consolidating material and supply lines.
Council members noted the council had not approved a separate pay increase for the HR director in prior sessions and requested the administration hold salary changes for nonunion staff while the council reviews budget deficits; one councilor proposed keeping the HR director salary at the prior level (the suggested adjustment in the meeting was $78,750) rather than the $100,000 requested. Council members also questioned a $12,000 training line for HR given that no training expenditures were yet recorded and asked Fisher to produce a detailed training plan and cost justification. Fisher agreed to take a deeper dive and to email the council a follow-up with comparables and training needs.
Civil-service and police/fire commission line items were reviewed: commissioners’ fees and background-check/medical costs are budgeted; councilors agreed to reduce the civil-service/police & fire commission-fees line modestly (police/fire commission fees were reduced from $10,000 to $8,000 in the recommended budget guidance) because recent activity had been below budgeted amounts.
Council did not record a formal adoption of salary changes or training budgets at the hearing; it requested follow-up information and comparables to finalize HR compensation and training requests.
