Are employees of the city of Mount Airy paid too little or too much?
A comprehensive pay and classification study targeting municipal positions in comparison with other areas has been launched, but not everyone is on board with the idea.
The study was approved at a meeting of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners on Feb. 6. The board voted 4-1 to have it performed by the Piedmont Triad Regional Council, a Kernersville-based alliance of 74 local government units in a 12-county region including Mount Airy and Surry County.
It is costing $18,000, which was the lowest of three proposals received from agencies bidding to handle the study.
The issue of salary levels for workers on the city payroll has been a hotly debated topic over the past few years, and the most recent action involving the study stems from a disclosure during an informational session in December.
Becky McCann, the city’s personnel director, said then that many terminations have occurred among municipal departments, resulting in a 14% turnover rate for the previous 12 months among a total of around 170 positions.
Between 50% and 60% of the departures are due to employees landing higher-paying jobs elsewhere, McCann added, in both the public and private sectors.
McCann was asked by Commissioner Marie Wood at the meeting earlier this month, when the study by the Piedmont Triad Regional Council was approved, if it is advantageous to get that outside agency involved.
“It will be money well-spent,” the personnel director replied. McCann said references had been checked for the Piedmont Triad team that will conduct the study. “And I would highly recommend this group.”
The majority of the city commissioners embraced the idea of the study, as evidenced by the 4-1 vote.
“I think this is long-overdue,” said Commissioner Ron Niland, a former city manager in Mount Airy.
During the December meeting, Niland had suggested that such a study be pursued since the municipality seems to have a hard time hiring and retaining employees.
Three other commissioners agreed with the idea of exploring possible entities to perform the study and its cost, and to return with that information during a future session, which culminated with the vote on Feb. 6.
Cawley concerns
Commissioner Jon Cawley, who cast the lone dissenting vote on Feb. 6 and also opposed the idea for the study in December which was backed by the other commissioners, has problems with the process.
Cawley is concerned about attempts to align municipal employees’ pay with that of the private sector, with the city personnel director saying some jobs in this realm will be part of the study but public-sector positions mostly will be examined.
“I don’t know that there’s anybody in the city who could not make more in the private sector,” he commented.
“If our goal is to make the public sector equal to the private sector, then that’s a bad goal,” Cawley added, referring to previous discussions over the years about the salary levels for city workers, who received an across-the-board 2% hike in 2019.
“We keep coming back to the point that we don’t pay them enough,” he said. Cawley believes at some point city leaders must abandon the idea of matching what “the private sector is willing to pay.”
One of Cawley’s concerns in recent years has surrounded the fact that once imposed, salary hikes for municipal employees can’t be reversed and must be paid long into the future. Such increases are “unsustainable” given a tight revenue outlook facing Mount Airy, he has said.
This echoed a statement of Cawley’s during the December discussion, that competing with private industry will require substantial increases in the property tax rate, which already rose by 25% in 2018.
However, Niland pointed out during the most recent meeting that there is also a cost involved with constantly replacing employees, “which is very expensive.”
He says the pay and classification study will determine if Mount Airy is compensating workers at below-standard levels.
Since comparisons with other municipalities will be part of that process, Cawley also took a swipe at a statement by Niland during the December meeting when Niland expressed a dislike for comparisons among municipalities.
“It doesn’t matter what Reidsville is doing,” he said then.
Before the vote approving the study this month, Cawley said the city government was proposing to allocate $18,000 “just for that.”
The pay and classification study by the Piedmont Triad Regional Council will include reviewing Mount Airy’s existing job classifications and pay for “appropriateness, internal equity and external competitiveness,” according to documents from the organization.
The results of the study are scheduled to be presented to Mount Airy officials in May, when budget planning for the next fiscal year to start on July 1 will be in full swing.
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com