12-08-2014 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, December 8, 2014 6:30 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 18 of 26 22. 2015 NON-UNION EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION ADJUSTMENTS – RESOLUTION NO. 6479 Loftus stated each year the City adopts a non-union employee compensation adjustment and an adjustment in the monthly insurance contribution. Loftus noted the City Council has discussed this item in a number of work sessions related to the budget and in the current budget there is a 2.5 percent wage increase allocated for non-union wages. Loftus noted the main discussion at the work sessions was whether that should be a lump sum payment or a cost of living adjustment. An adjustment to the monthly insurance contribution has been less of a discussion topic. Staff has provided the City Council with a draft resolution. Loftus noted Staff did not want to be presumptuous with the numbers and that it will be necessary for the City Council to denote which numbers should be inserted in the resolution. Staff’s recommendation is a 2.5 percent COLA increase to keep equity among union and non-union employees. McMillan asked what the dollar amount increase was for the insurance. Loftus indicated it was $75. Bremer stated in her view this is the right way to go and that she did not like the direction the City went in the last few budget cycles. Bremer stated she understood the rationale the Council used for the last few years but that in her view the City should commit to a 2.5 pay adjustment this year to reward fantastic service and to encourage fantastic service in the future. Bremer noted the City heard from a departing employee that one of the reasons that person looked for other work was the pay freeze, which put him in a worse position than what he had bargained for. Bremer stated the City is behind on wages given the pay freezes compared to where they would have been without the pay freezes. Levang stated Orono is a small city and that the City Council owes it to the taxpayers to act like a small city. Levang noted one of the things talked about last year was to stop the compounding of wages because over time it will become more difficult to be able to keep the wages as high as they become with an annual increase. Levang stated it takes courage to hold the line on the budget and that it is difficult to say that she is not in favor of COLA, but that she would propose a 1 percent lump sum and a 1 percent raise, which would be 2 percent. Levang indicated she does not want to go above 2 percent and that the 1 percent would give the City the ability to save in the long-term but yet allow for Staff to have an increase in their base wage. Printup stated he likes the creativity of Council Member Levang’s suggestion and that he would have liked to have seen it six months ago when this item was first discussed. Printup stated the recession in 2008 was a time to focus in on the annual increases and that he was happy to see the City was able to do something like that last year. Printup stated heading into 2015 times are different and that he would agree with Council Member Bremer.