Onalaska council reviews Baker Tilly compensation study; 23 positions recommended for regrading, council asks for cost projections

City Administrator Rick Niemeyer on Tuesday presented the Baker Tilly internal compensation study and its implementation options to the Onalaska Common Council, saying the firm reviewed 61 positions and "23 of them are proposed to change a grade." The study, finalized the morning of the meeting, assessed positions using Baker Tilly’s SAFE methodology and placed jobs on a 25‑grade, 11‑step pay plan.

The report recommended 23 position regrades (all but one by a single grade) and identified seven positions with pay that fell outside a grade minimum or maximum. Niemeyer said the study covered positions, not individual employees or performance, and that implementation counts differ because some positions have multiple incumbents; staff noted 77 employees were included in the implementation calculations (including five vacancies).

Baker Tilly provided three implementation options and staff supplied rough annual cost estimates for council review. Option one would move employees in recommended positions to the new grade and place them on the nearest non-decreasing step; staff estimated a one‑year cost of about $35,000 (a half‑year July–Dec figure of roughly $17,500). Option two would match step to years in the current position and was estimated at about $151,000 per year. Option three would leave employees on the same step number when they move grades and was estimated at about $285,000 per year.

Finance staff also told council the Baker Tilly pay grid already incorporated a 1.5% COLA that had been approved for the current cycle; implementing grade changes as of July 1 would be treated alongside those COLA assumptions. Sabrina Enriquez, who is handling cost modeling for the city, told the council the numbers Baker Tilly provided would be translated into fund-level impacts and that she would return with projections showing general‑fund versus enterprise‑fund effects and how an August or Jan. 1, 2027 implementation would affect the 2027 budget.

Council members broadly expressed support for a cautious near‑term correction and asked staff to run the numbers for the Finance Committee and the July council meeting. Several members said they were inclined toward option one as a modest immediate fix but wanted the full 2027 budget implications before approving more expensive options.

On the treatment of employees who have already reached the top step of a grade, staff said the Baker Tilly report provided no specific recommendation; they proposed alternatives such as a year‑end lump sum for those employees or later structural changes to the pay plan, and flagged that a move to open‑ended pay bands is an emerging but not universally accepted trend.

What happens next: Finance staff committed to preparing detailed cost breakdowns and scenarios for the July finance committee and council meetings so elected officials can decide whether to implement changes in 2026 (as an interim correction) or in the 2027 budget process.