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Council directs staff to draft policy language to address pay compression in fire department
Summary
Council discussed pay compression in public safety after referrals raised equity concerns; members asked staff to draft policy language (section 9) to permit internal assessments and trigger reviews for compression, and the council approved the direction to staff 3-0.
Council members discussed a referral regarding pay compression in the fire department and agreed to direct staff to draft policy language allowing internal reviews and targeted adjustments.
A council member described the issue as an "equity problem" rather than solely a market issue, saying some employees had received different multi-year raises and that the result can be supervisors paid only marginally more than subordinates. He gave an example where a battalion chief could be within a dollar an hour of a lieutenant after step progression. "So that really matters in the dollar and cents when you start looking at the tables," the member said, urging trigger points for review.
Speakers recommended creating a mechanism—such as a 5% to 7% compression trigger—so department heads or HR would flag cases for human resources committee review and possible step adjustments (for example, skipping a step to restore separation between supervisors and subordinates). HR staff cautioned that changes in one pay group would affect others in shared grades (finance, engineering, parks), and emphasized the need to bring full documentation when making a referral.
Chair moved to direct staff to revise the city's pay provisions policy (section 9) to allow for internal assessment and referral to the human resources committee; the motion carried on a 3'0 vote. Council asked staff to draft verbiage, return it to the human resources committee for refinement, and then present it to council (targeting August for committee review).
