Councilors debate whether to trim a proposed 4% pay increase for management

Several councilors questioned whether a proposed 4% pay increase for nonunion managers (NUGS) should be reduced after the council heard budget presentations and learned the largest settled union contract included a 4% increase. One councilor said a blanket 4% increase for everyone was too high and suggested limiting management raises to align closer with other adjustments.

"If we start telling our staff that they're not valued because we're not gonna give them the raise that they had already been expecting, I think we start losing people," one councilor said. Another councilor responded that contractual obligations for unions constrain some changes, and that the council can only adjust noncontractual management raises.

Public commenter Tom Grabe cautioned that approving 4% increases while the pension actuarial wage-growth assumption is 3.5% could stress pension liabilities in the long run. "If you continue on this, you're either going to need to change that, 3.5 to 4, or the pension is going to get itself into trouble down the road," Grabe said.

Council members did not impose an immediate change to the protocol that ties nonunion increases to the highest settled union contract; staff explained the current practice has historically followed the largest union increase as a base for nonunion adjustments. Several members asked staff to identify the modest fiscal savings that would result from trimming management raises and to return with precise figures.

The exchange underscored tension between retaining staff through competitive pay and the need to manage long-term liabilities and tax impacts.