By Pauline Masson –
Public Works Commissioner Robert Brueggemann cites a crisis in starting pay for his department. He says there are vacancies in street department but the city cannot attract new workers at current pay rate. He asked aldermen to adopt a previously approved pay matrix of step increases for certain qualifications to entice new hires to join the city. Aldermen played, “Simon Says.” He didn’t ask right.
In recent board of aldermen (BOA) meeting and administrative committee meeting, aldermen cited semantics in response to a need for a written schedule of how much city workers are paid for certain qualifications.
A pay matrix, designed to bring up lower paid employees and in the streets, water and parks departments provides a timeline to show candidates what they can expect in the future.
“This is something in contract for many years,”Mr. Brueggemann said. “This has lot more detail, more steps to go through. OSHA training, etc. It gives us a nice stair step of what people can expect over four or five year period. We can’t attract city workers for $19 an hour,” he said.
James Cleeve said “not now.” Debbie Kelly said request was “disrespectful to aldermen.”
She said aldermen should have been prepared that the request was coming.
“You should have come to aldermen to let us know this was coming, instead of just putting it in front of us and expecting us to act” she said. “We are your board.”
Mr. Brueggemann said the city formerly had a matrix that spelled out minimums and future pay increases for certain licenses and training. It was included in the union contract. Former City Administrator Steve Roth abandoned it. Interim city administrator Harold Selby asked that it be brought back to aldermen but it never happened. It kept getting kicked down the road.
Mr. Brueggemann said cities around us all require a commercial driving license (CDL)
“If you want someone with a CDL you’re going to have to pay at least $20 an hour. You can go pretty much anywhere and make $22 an hour if you have a CDL,” he said.
“I talked to Alliance Water District, I think they start off at $20 or $21 an hour and don’t think they require a CDL,” he said.
“Are you hiring them as an apprentice,” Mr. Cleeve asked.
“Well, we’re hiring a high school boy as soon as he gets out of school, and we will be hiring him as an apprentice. When he gets his qualifications, then he can go up,” Mr. Brueggemann said
“But, the good thing about this (the matrix) is, if we do get somebody in with these other requirements, we can bring him in as a two or a three. So we can try to draw someone who is working somewhere else or – we can say we can bring you in at this level because you meet the qualifications.”
“I would prefer that we could get someone with experience,” Mr. Brueggemann added. “You know, it’s nice, but a high school boy we’re hiring won’t have experience.”
“The time to act on this is now,” Mr. Brueggeman said. He said he was preparing to interview candidates for city jobs and needed to be able to show them what they could expect to be making in the future, after they meet certain qualifications, like acquiring a CDL.
“I recommend that you move forward with the proposed matrix.” He said.
“I disagree,” Aldermen Kelley said.
Mr.Cleeve said he was in favor of having salaries where the city could get people.
“I am for the matrix as well, he said. “But I think we need to look at where we are before putting a matrix in place. I’m still not confident in where we are even though we had the financial report in place in the last alderman meeting.”
In the Mar. 25, administrative committee, which Cleeve chairs, Mr. Cleeve and Ms. Kelley grilled Mr. Brueggemann for an hour and came to no conclusion. They did not vote to make a recommendation to the board.
After an alphabet soup discussion on the contract, who should set starting pay, the existing contract, who the matrix would affect, timing of the request, and more, Mr. Cleeve said he would ‘figure it out,” and ask the full board to make a decision at the April 1, BOA meeting.
He said he favored adopting a matrix but thought the timing was wrong. He saw the request as a pay raise and he didn’t like pay raises in January. He said the matrix should be part of the budget process.
“But that is in June,” Mr. Brueggemann said. “The reason I’m pushing it now is because I have two open positions that need to be filled. I am really looking at this to start making calls to people that I can interview. I’m not going to get people in here for $19 an hour.”
It should be noted that Alderman Rafael Madrigal also serves on this committee. He did not make comments during the lengthy discussion but at the end said the matrix should be approved.
Mr. Cleeve was not convinced. He said he would continue to work on the issue before the Apr. 1 meeting (outside the view of the public).
“I will look at the budget impact of it and be prepared at our next board meeting, talk to the city clerk and find a person to give us clear picture of where we are and will know whether the city can afford to do it or not,” he said. “I’ll commit to making sure I have this explained and work with Mr. Brueggemann before the (Apr. 1) meeting so all six members can decide.
The entire content of both meetings can be screened on the city’s YouTube page.
I feel sorry for the citizens who obviously have no idea what type of a Board they desire to lead them. The City appears lost and locked in time. Maybe a referendum should be placed on the ballot asking voters if they would agree to dissolve the City of Pacific and turn the affairs over to Franklin County Board of Commissioners? What good is a City that cannot function? Sooner or later you’ll start running out of money 💰 and then what?
The city’s great at scouting grants, using tax dollars for things we don’t need. Who all is tax exempt? Has an NGO? Got some quid pro quo contract with the city? Roth, the board, had no business abandoning the pay matrix. City employees should be staffed and paid first. But, not a surprise. Pot, cigars, wine, coffee, and all those other big businesses the city’s been recruiting, of course, $19/hr’s fine with them. That should provide city with similar turnover to a McDonalds. I agree, we’ve gotten zero return on investment. It’s like some private club using millions for pointless, personal legacy projects that are nothing but drains. Being an alderman is a lot of work. For whatever reason, it’s not being done satisfactorily. The first of the year newsletters, what we accomplish, are testament. It’s a joke. We never get the straight story. Nobody can make or maintain a budget or schedule. If you’re the right person with the right biz, skill, building, piece of land, name, etc., you may think things are fine, however, the majority’ve experienced nothing but higher taxes. No biggie. It happens. Small towns get big ideas. I’ve seen them dissolved before. Too much work. Nobody wants to run. Better to dissolve than to exist at the expense of many, just to benefit a few. We don’t need endless grant grifting just increasing our taxes.
Beating a dead horse, here we go again, but too late to do much about it now.
City is tied up most of it’s ‘free cash reserves paying more than $ 12,000 a month paying off the scam Herbie and his crowd placed on the City for 20 years, to pay off the loan for Dead Cedar just to keep face for failing to get the promised ‘grants’. Tourist money barely pays for salaries and building upkeep of $ 200,000.
Shame that a City of our size has to quibble over ‘pennies’ to have and keep qualified individuals in public works and streets, the very departments that make our city livable, and by the way get the majority of complaints.
Didn’t know the story, but, it’s obvious what goes on. I drive from Eureka, daily, and that multimillion dollar, dilapidated dump is a thorn in my side. No sign, no business, not even used for community events. People who live here don’t even know what it is. Nobody had any business starting a project without grants approved, muchless, approving and signing a loan putting the city in debt. Irresponsible.
Returning from Eureka, it used to be a lil oasis out here. Some green fields, homes on acreage, our iconic bluff in the heart of town, the rivers, views………
The biggest problem withe the Dead Cedar loan extension was that it was passed in three closed BOA meetings ( records are sealed), with no input from the public, just to make Herbie and Meyers look like ‘heroes’. Note, please ignore all the questionable spending , at least $ 93,000, during construction. and the $ 12,000 a month paid to Navigate, for 18 months , to ‘manage the project’ while nothing was being done.
Again, sorry , to late.