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 21 of 26 (22. 2015 NON-UNION EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION ADJUSTMENTS – RESOLUTION NO. 6479, Continued) Printup moved, Levang seconded, to establish the 2015 non-union employee compensation adjustments at 1.5 percent COLA and 1 percent lump sum payment, and Adopt RESOLUTION NO. 6479, a Resolution Approving Pay Plan Adjustments for Non-Union City Employees for 2015. VOTE: Ayes 3, Nays 1, Bremer Opposed, Cornick Abstained. 23. FIRST AMENDMENT TO EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENTS Loftus noted the Police Chief and City Administrator have employment contracts, which is not common for most non-union employees, but it is extremely common for like positions in other cities. Loftus stated she has received a request for full family medical, along with a salary comparison from area cities. Loftus noted the City has been working on this for a few months for both contracts and that it is up for consideration this evening. Loftus noted only HSA plans are offered in the City and that the amount of the deductible would be deposited directly into the employees’ Health Care Savings Plan since the City does not offer a co-pay/Cadillac plan. Loftus noted this would be the first amendment to both contracts. Printup asked what would happen in the future 30 years from now and the City has new hires in these positions. Loftus stated the existing contracts would go away when a new city administrator or police chief is hired. Levang asked if past history would have any impact on the new contracts. Mattick stated the contracts are public documents and that any new hire would have access to them if they chose to look at them. Loftus noted the former city administrator had full family medical. Mattick stated the City Council is not legally bound to provide the same benefits and that it would be a newly negotiated contract. Printup stated he is uncomfortable with these amendments in light of the preceding conversation for non- union compensation and that he is not in favor of the amendments. Levang stated she is also struggling with it. Levang stated if you take the person out of the equation, in her view it would be difficult to explain why the Council is doing this. Cornick asked if other city administrators and other police chiefs have similar agreements. Loftus indicated they do. Dennis Walsh, 1354 Rest Point Road, stated this is a great time for the City to have a conversation about these kinds of payments. Walsh stated the City is talking about defined contribution type of plans versus open-ended kind of plans where the City could be on the hook for whatever it happens to be. Walsh stated he knows, based on what he pays his employees in terms of family and individual coverage, the City is definitely on the high end of that to begin with.