By Pauline Masson –
Aldermen are set to act on Tuesday on an ordinance that if approved would give across the board pay raises to all city employees.
It’s worth paying attention to, City Administrator Harold Selby says, because it would help the city fill a number of vacancies where employees have left City of Pacific jobs for higher pay in other cities.
The most crucial example is the 911 dispatch desk, which currently has only three employes.
“And they are on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Selby said. The department needs additional dispatchers and has advertised the position but has not been able to attract applicants.
He says he worries about what would happen if someone called 911 and there was no answer. But that is just one department where the city struggles to attract applicants. The Police Department as a whole is down four patrol officers. And the challenge to attract new hires seems to correlate directly to pay. Officers with a few years experience in Pacific, can find positions at higher starting pay in nearby cities.
To keep the correct number of officers on duty this year the police department has paid out $96,510.67 in overtime. Couple that with Lagers $26,057 and you have $122,586 dollars in less than eleven months,” Selby said. “If you look at the time (time equals money) we spend training new officers and dispatchers you can see there is big savings to the city if we can fully man our departments.”
“Cost of police department raises would be $181,680 more per year. Communication costs would increase $33,033 per year. Transportation is $42,699 more per year
The total cost for one year’s pay raises for all employees would be $313,784, which would be three percent of the city’s $10 million budget. Half of that to make this fiscal year balance would be $156,892.
“To balance this years budget I can remove the $75,000 dollar software for Administration, $50,000 dollar software for the PSAP, and the $42,909 dollar credit we will get in January from MIRMA,” he said.”Going forward when we make the new budget as we break out what it will cost for each department the picture gets a little easier to understand how this is possible.”
”I removed any raise for me as city administrator. I had a three percent raise but I removed it after one local social media site published that I gave myself a $11,200.00 dollar raise. I think they assumed that I got a ten percent raise. I don’t need a raise or want one.”
Selby noted that he went far outside the city to consider what workers should earn.
“When we contract for work in Pacific for things such as sidewalks, streets and the sewer project we have happening, or the park ADA upgrades, we make the contractor pay their employees what is called a prevailing wage, Selby said. ”For a truck driver with a CDL license, which we require right now in Pacific, we pay $19.50 an hour if in water/sewer department. With fringe benefits that would total $29 or $30 dollars an hour. But we require an outside contractor to pay their worker for the same work $43.84 hour.”
A point of concern is the longevity of city workers, especially in the street and public works departments.
“We have so many that are at the end of their careers here in Pacific. As they leave their salary level is not where we can attract new workers, he said.
Following a previous line of inquiry from Alderman Scott Lesh, asking former administrator Steve Roth to look for possible line items in the budget where revenue was under estimated and costs were over estimated, Selby said he did look at possibilities for adjustment.
“We have a line item for brush composting this year for $32,000. We only do that very three or so years. Many big projects such as the meter replacements will be done.
“I am concerned about these because if there is no one to answer the phone when someone calls 911 and there is no one to respond it on us as the city. If someone gets sick because the water is bad or there is no one to fix the clogged sewer drains or we pollute the river it is on us as a city,” he said. “I don’t want to be at a place in time where we say we should have seen this coming.”
