Christian Jones told the council she had expected updated data from the contracted consultant but had not received it and therefore recommended completing the remainder of the salary study in-house. She said draft documents and benchmarking data exist, and that remaining work involves clerical cleanup, aligning job descriptions and confirming numbers.

Jones said the contract has expired and that the city has not made a $15,000 payment to the consultant. She said, "the way I've read it, we're not bound to make the payment unless they deliver a final product," and that the consultant had not started phase two of the engagement, described in the transcript as the organizational audit.

No vote on contracting or payment was recorded in the meeting. Jones said staff will move forward internally and provide a recommendation to the council once the in‑house work is complete.