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HomeMy WebLinkAboutIR 2566 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 2566 (AFO �0A ft ,�A To the Mayor and Members of the City Council September 24, 1975 *rFxA`'i Subject: REQUESTED STAFF REPORT - THE USE OF LOCAL SALARY DATA On September 2, 1975, a representative of the City Water Department stated at a budget hearing that he was told by a Personnel Office employee that the City Council would not allow the use of salary information from local businesses or agencies in the annual salary survey. The City Council requested a report. On August 19, 1975, Jim Ancy, Personnel Administrator, and Frank Priore, Personnel Director, attended a meeting of "concerned Water Department employees" held at the North Holly Water Plant. The purpose of this meeting was to allow Water Department employees to voice their concern and problems concerning the proposed salary in- creases. At the start of the meeting Mr. Cagle introduced Jim Ancy and asked if he would like to make any presentation to the employees in attendance. He started by explaining how the Personnel Department arrived at salary recommendations. He explained that certain classifications, those which we draw from the local labor market, are set by a local salary survey. It was pointed out that the City this year had participated in a Chamber of Commerce local salary survey. He explained generally those classes which fall within the local salary program. He then proceeded to explain the process used in the national and state salary survey that is conducted by Personnel, naming those cities which are surveyed and explaining the weighting factors that are used. For example, Texas cities are entered twice and national cities weighted once. He also explained, in response to a question, how the twelve surveyed cities had been chosen. He briefly explained the factors which were used to measure the comparability of those twelve cities to Fort Worth. He explained in detail the local salary survey procedures indicating that the survey was based on businesses and industries in the local area. During Mr. Ancy's presentation there were many questions asked by Water Department employees. One of these questions dealt with why we used these particular cities in our survey. A statement was made by one employee to the effect that we use "cheap" cities in our survey such as E1 Paso, Tampa, Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Mr. Ancy explained again that the City had to maintain some form of comparability and that these cities were established as comparable during the study conducted in 1969. One of the employees presented some survey data that had been obtained from other agencies in the local area. One of these agencies was the North Texas Municipal Water District, a second was the Gulf Coast Water District, a third was the Miller Brewing Company, and the fourth was the Schlitz Brewing Company in Longview, Texas, Mr. Ancy told the individual involved that we did not survey those particular agencies because they had not previously been included in our survey sample. The employee who had asked the question said "Well, why don't you use the data from these places that we have surveyed to set our salaries?" Mr. Ancy replied "I don't think that the City Council would allow us (Personnel) to use specifically selected businesses or agencies for salary recommendations because if we did this, the engineers would naturally select high paying private engineering and construc- tion firms for their survey, the librarians would choose the county and state higher paying library agencies to set their salaries, and the planners would use ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS N0. 2566 - Page 2 (qtO ~ 500RR,- To the Mayor and Members of the City Council September 24, 1975 V xreXPCD Subject: REQUESTED STAFF REPORT — THE USE OF LOCAL SALARY DATA 1079 the large cities as a basis for their salary survey, with the end result that the entire survey base of comparability would be destroyed." At no time during the session did Mr. Ancy either state or imply that the City Council would not allow Personnel to use any local businesses and agencies in our survey, since he had explained at the outset of the presentation that' Personnel does use local businesses and agencies in our survey procedure. It appears that the individual involved misunderstood. It is my understanding that the question that was asked implied that Personnel or the City Management should allow the individuals within a class to select the agen= cies which are to be surveyed as a base for salary recommendations for that class. It was explained that this suggested method would be physically impossible because Personnel would have to conduct approximately 400 different surveys in order to set the salary recommendations. The explanation dealt strictly with Council policy relative to conducting a national and state survey for job classes which are re- stricted to municipal government and the local survey of private businesses and industries to set the salaries for those classes for which we recruit in the local labor market. Conclusion It appears that because of the large number of employees present, the noise level, the general confusion caused by several individuals speaking at once and the highly emotional nature of the meeting and its subject matter, the presentation made on behalf of the Personnel Department in an attempt to explain the City's policies and procedures was misunderstood, or that only part of what was said was retained and taken out of context. Respectfull submitted, R. N. Line City Manager RNL:mm ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS �—