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Fountain Hills staff propose formula for annual salary adjustments; council asks for legal guidance on elected stipends
Summary
Town staff proposed a standardized formula combining the national Employment Cost Index and a local market index to compute a recommended annual general adjustment (AGA) for staff salaries. Council broadly supported standardization and asked staff to bring legal guidance about tying council stipends to the formula; no final vote was taken.
Fountain Hills town staff presented a proposed, formula‑driven approach to annual salary adjustments at a council work session, recommending a blended “annual general adjustment” (AGA) that uses 50% Employment Cost Index (ECI) and 50% a local municipality market index (League of Arizona Cities and Towns survey) as the starting point for budget planning.
Paul Soledinger and other staff described the proposal as a way to make pay adjustments more transparent and less ad hoc. Soledinger summarized the calculation as “50% of each of the metrics added together to create that AGA” and said staff tested the approach against the last four years of adjustments; the formula would have produced slightly different numbers than council action in two of those years but would have provided more stability overall.
Council response and merit pay Council members generally endorsed the idea of standardizing the cost‑of‑living component for budget planning. Several council…
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