12-09-2019 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday,December 9,2019 6:30 o'clock p.m. fail and they will ask to be included. Since there are assessments and they're set at interest rates ranging from 4-5 to 8%,the City increases the connection fee with the associated projects by the amount of the interest on the special assessments each year. After the special assessments are paid off,there is a flat amount for connection to an existing sewer system. The assessments get paid off and maybe it's 20-30 years since the sewer project went and adjustments are made. There were many sewer line connections that Staff was adjusting each year, some of the fees were getting into $30,000-40,000 and the premise that someone opted out of a project and opted back in a few years later to avoid some costs does not hold true anymore, so Edwards and he figured out what might be reasonable. He said this is not a change, it's been done this way for a number of years. He noted Staff spent a lot of time talking about utility service charges at a work session and asked if he needed to go into them in detail. Johnson, Walsh, and Seals stated he did not. Johnson moved,Printup seconded,to Adopt The 2020 Fee Schedule.VOTE: Ayes 5, nays 0. 6. COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENTS FOR NON-UNION EMPLOYEES RESOLUTION NO. 7053 Olson said the fee schedule is set up with steps and grades, everyone is in an assigned grade when they start, and each year the scale is adjusted based on a cost-of-living increase. The scale moves up; no one moves from step to step. It is similar to the cost-of-living increase negotiated in union contracts. Seals said she pulled the item because the employees are not union employees so the City has the ability to do something greater and she feels that is owed to them. She said Printup and herself have been pushing for a performance review system. Theoretically, she would love Rief to say, "Here are my people. Adam knocked it out of the ballpark. I want to give Adam a 5 or 6%raise." She said Staff is selling themselves short by this methodology. She would have no problem telling a resident the City Council gave some of the staff higher raises because they're amazing. She is not okay approving it because she wants Staff to come to a plan and let other Staff see what it looks like when they realize Orono is a performance-driven city. She recommended tabling the item and having Rief come back with a proposal that is performance-driven. Retroactive raises can be given. If the Council says yes to the proposal, it is kicking the can down the road for another year. Johnson said he's been on the Council for a year and one of the first meetings included conversations about not having employee reviews done and the system Staff agreed to pay for, and a year later he has not seen any commitment to having that data. He agreed with Seals that performance should be rewarded. The City is failing by not having formal reviews. He is not in favor of doing a broad-stroke increase, which is not an indication of any specific person's performance but the group as a whole. Seals said the City Council can't speak about anyone's specific performance because there are no reviews. She noted there is even a review system at a small non-profit soccer club she is involved in. She suggested tabling it and asked Rief to come back with something. Crosby said he is in favor of the reviews but asked if union employees would have an issue. He likes the idea of incentive-based pay and it makes sense to him. Mattick said typical compensation for local units of government are,when you are hired you fall within a grid and two things happen: Usually on an annual basis you are reviewed. If your review goes well,you Page 31 of 34