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Council debates Baker Tilly salary study; members request line-by-line data
Summary
Council heard Baker Tilly’s explanation of pay compression and Option 2, which moves long-tenured employees further into pay ranges; council members pressed for detailed Excel data and questioned committee communications and the city manager’s presence at employee meetings.
City Manager Gabe Grama opened discussion of the Baker Tilly salary study and said staff included all backup materials in the packet. Jada (Baker Tilly) explained the rationale for Option 2, describing "compression" as a situation where newer hires can leapfrog longer-tenured employees in pay. "Option 2 is intending to move the employee who's been in that role a lot longer further into the range," Jada said, adding that the option aims to reflect where long-tenured staff would have been if the structure had existed when they were hired.
Council Member Junkersfeld sharply challenged language in the background materials that she said attributed a council position to the employee committee. She said the city manager's presence at a meeting changed employee candor and gave examples of the committee's work and its intended role as listener and advisor. "It's unethical for a city manager to show up at any committee meeting," Junkersfeld said, asserting that employees changed their demeanor when Gabe attended. Gabe Grama accepted responsibility for the agenda wording and said he had been asked to attend the final meeting to hear feedback.
Council Member Lawson and others pressed for more granular data. Lawson asked staff to provide a spreadsheet listing positions by grade and current pay alongside what Option 2 would produce, without names. "All I want to see is employee 1 to employee 556... Once I get it done and you crunch the data..." one council member said, emphasizing a desire to verify consultant calculations. Several department heads and council members expressed support for addressing compression and for Baker Tilly's objectivity, while also agreeing that staff should provide the requested Excel data quickly.
The council agreed to continue vetting the pay-plan implementation, directed staff to deliver the requested data in spreadsheet form before the Saturday workshop, and emphasized that future steps would balance correcting compression with the ability to fund new positions.
