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Belle Isle council accepts Evergreen compensation study, directs staff to prepare phased pay‑plan
Summary
After hearing a presentation from Evergreen Solutions that found pay gaps, the council voted unanimously to accept the study and asked staff to prepare phased pay‑plan options and fiscal projections to return March 17; consultant estimated a one‑time cost of about $337,000 with an average adjustment of 14%.
The Belle Isle City Council voted unanimously to accept a classification and compensation study from Evergreen Solutions and directed staff to prepare a phased plan to align city salaries with the market.
Britt Campbell, a project manager with Evergreen Solutions, told the council the study combined an internal review of job descriptions and employee outreach with an external market analysis of roughly 20 peer jurisdictions. He said the firm recommended a unified, market‑competitive step plan — 117 pay grades and 21 steps — and estimated a one‑time cost to move employees toward market of about $337,000 and an average adjustment of roughly 14%.
"The goal with creating a step plan for all city employees, sworn and non‑sworn, is to help with budgeting so you have a clear understanding of where employees are going from year to year," Campbell said.
Police and public‑safety pay gaps drew particular attention during council questions. Campbell told the council that, by one comparison, patrol officers’ minimum rate was about 20.9% below the market minimum, a shortfall council members warned could hamper recruitment and retention.
Police Chief (speaker 7) framed the study as a long‑term investment. "Tonight's salary study is not about a single department. It is about citywide," he said, urging the council to consider the cost of losing trained employees and the expense of repeated recruitments.
After questions about how peer cities were weighted in the market comparison, the council member who moved the motion (speaker 9) asked staff to return with fiscal projections and a phased alignment plan that would set a uniform October 1 date for future step adjustments. The motion was seconded by the city manager (Rob, speaker 3) and carried unanimously.
Council and staff emphasized the action taken was to accept the study’s findings and direct further work on implementation and cost modeling rather than to immediately change employee pay. Staff said it will return to the council with detailed fiscal scenarios and requested actions on March 17.
What’s next: staff will produce cost projections and implementation scenarios, including the phased dates discussed, and present them for council consideration on March 17.
