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Administration frames 2025 as year to invest in people: $6M reserved for salary-study implementation
Summary
The administration set a $6 million placeholder in the 2025 budget to implement a citywide classification and compensation study, proposes a baseline 3% COLA and outlined steps for grading, job families and FLSA compliance. Council pushed for clarity on inclusion of clerk/council staff and timelines.
Human Resources Director Shar Paycheck told the council that most city employees are proposed to receive a 3% cost-of-living adjustment in 2025 and that the administration has budgeted $6,000,000 to implement the 2023 classification and compensation study.
"In 2025, most City of Bloomington employees will receive an average cost of living adjustment... There's $6,000,000 that is budgeted in 2025 for implementation of the salary study," Paycheck said, adding that the study has already evaluated roughly 289 nonunion positions and that calibration, job-family definitions and FLSA compliance remain to be completed.
The HR presentation included subgroup details: 3.1% for some union groups, 2.9% for police union employees in modeling, and a $15,000 contractual increase for fire personnel noted in that department's presentation. The administration proposed presenting a salary ordinance without implementing the study changes immediately and returning later with a completed ordinance and position regrades.
Council members asked whether council-office and clerk-office staff would be included and how recurring costs from regrades would be modeled. Deputy Mayor Knapp and Director Paycheck agreed to follow up with confirmations and schedule details.
Why it matters: the salary-study implementation is presented as a structural step to improve recruitment, retention and operational capacity across departments, but will require careful modeling to ensure ongoing affordability given a projected general-fund deficit.
Next steps: HR will finish calibrations and job-family work, the administration will model multi-year costs and return a final salary ordinance for council review before end of year.
