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Staff recommends ending exclusive Riverdale pay match; alternatives would raise payroll 5–7%
Summary
A staff compensation study recommended the city stop matching only to Riverdale, citing skewed comparators. Two alternative datasets were presented: Wasatch Front (≈7.24% payroll impact, ~$547,000) and 'Shoot the Moon' (≈5.24%, ≈$400,000).
Summer, a city staff member who led the compensation analysis, told the council the Riverdale comparator produced poor matches this year—"As suspected, the Riverdale match was not great. I gave it 2 out of 10." She said Riverdale's matches were heavily weighted toward fire positions and therefore produced a skewed payroll effect that would not reflect the city's broader job mix.
Summer presented two alternative comparators. The Wasatch Front dataset produced a 7.24% increase to total payroll (about $547,000) with 4.42% coming from market adjustments and 2.82% from merit/step progression. The "Shoot the Moon" dataset, which excludes very large "monster" cities and counties, produced roughly a 5.24% payroll impact (about $400,000) with similar step components. Summer recommended adopting a broader match (Shoot the Moon or Wasatch Front) and said she would return with proposed policy language to remove the exclusive Riverdale requirement.
