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Council adopts corrections and job title changes to non‑represented salary schedule, staff say net savings of roughly $21,000
Summary
Council voted to replace an appendix that contained a clerical salary error and to amend job titles and assignments in finance and public works; staff said the changes produce net staffing savings and do not require a budget amendment.
The Mountlake Terrace City Council on Tuesday adopted an ordinance correcting a clerical error in the city's non‑represented salary appendix and approved several position title and assignment changes in the finance and public works departments.
Human Resources Manager Lauren Hagstrom told council the appendix had inadvertently reflected an extra 3.5% inflation at each salary step; “Appendix A was not linked to the individual department budget tables calculating the COLA,” she said, and the error was identified before payroll was affected. The city will repeal and replace Appendix A to show the corrected 3% cost‑of‑living adjustment that the council previously approved.
Hagstrom explained proposed position changes in finance: replace an upcoming finance manager vacancy with a senior accountant (non‑supervisory, Teamsters‑represented), convert a finance technician to an accountant (Teamsters‑represented), and increase the finance coordinator from 0.75 FTE to full time to handle front‑desk and passport work. She said those finance changes are estimated to produce about $24,500 in staffing cost savings for the finance department.
In public works, staff proposed renaming the stormwater program manager to an environmental program manager to reflect added responsibilities such as urban forest management, solid waste and a forthcoming climate action plan; no salary change was proposed for that title change. Council and public works staff also proposed a new engineering technician to support stormwater inspections and field engineering. Public works said the engineering technician will be funded from a currently vacant maintenance worker position; staff estimated initial year‑to‑year budget impacts would be mitigated by reducing professional services where consultants had been used for peak workload.
Hagstrom said none of the ordinance items have a negative fiscal impact to the adopted biennial budget; the presentation described an overall estimated net staffing savings of approximately $21,100 after the adjustments.
Councilmember questions during discussion focused on the distinctions between maintenance worker and engineering technician duties, the timing of filling vacancies, and how the city expects to offset higher pay grades for some reclassifications. Public works staff said comparables with neighboring cities informed the engineer‑tech pay grade and noted that shifting some contracted workload in‑house would reduce professional‑services costs.
The council voted to adopt the ordinance amending the 2025–2026 non‑represented salary schedule. The motion passed on a voice vote; no roll‑call tally was recorded in the transcript.
Ending: Staff indicated the finance coordinator FTE change will be addressed in a future budget amendment and that the HR and department leaders will coordinate with the Teamsters regarding represented positions moved from the non‑represented schedule.
