Commission moves to add compensation study to consultant scope; cost reported at $20,000

Town management brought forward a request to expand the scope of a consultant agreement with the Gehring Group to include a comprehensive compensation study. John Mueller of the Gehring Group described the firm’s typical process: benchmark municipal jobs against 10–15 comparable agencies, build a pay plan tied to a chosen market percentile, perform compression analysis on existing staff and provide cost estimates and implementation scenarios (including multi‑year phase‑in options).

Mueller said the firm will identify comparable jurisdictions with similar budgets and headcounts, map each job classification to market matches and recommend a new pay structure with minimum, midpoint and maximum ranges. He said the study would include a compression analysis to identify staff whose pay has fallen behind market or internal peers and the likely cost to remedy that compression. Commissioners discussed using the study to set a new minimum (several commissioners referenced a $25/hour or $52,000 annual starting target during discussion) and asked the consultant to include options to phase raises over three, five and seven years to reduce budget shock.

When commissioners asked the cost of the additional study scope, the consultant said $20,000. Town procurement and the town attorney reviewed the scope and advised that the item is properly before the commission. Town staff and counsel confirmed procurement compliance and recommended placing the expanded scope/agreement on the next consent agenda. The commission agreed to place the item on consent for Wednesday’s meeting.

Ending — staff will place the proposed scope expansion on the consent agenda and return with the contract language and implementation options for the commission to adopt on the regular agenda.