07-18-12 Meet and Confer Committee Meeting

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Chief Adcox presented draft language for a multi -year contract which in summary says that a market survey would be completed each April for implementation each October and the City agrees to adjust the scale to market with a cap of 3%. At 3:18 p.m. the Association called a caucus. At 3:36 p.m. the Association returned The Association came back stating that they would be interested in the numbers we came up with and implementation of the compression starting the 2"a year of the multi -year contract and working in phases to reduce the number of steps in each rank. Example: 2"d year of contract, move Patrol from 12 steps to 11 steps; Sergeants 10 steps to 8 steps; Lieutenants 10 steps to 7 steps. These changes would be in addition to market survey adjustments. The Chief advised that the City would have to be cautious when obligating the City in future years with no guide as to the impact it will have. We will already be bringing forward the multi- year agreement that will contain language in regard to future year's salary increases and that approach is a new idea being presented to Council. To combine this increase with the additional compensation that would be required to incrementally collapse employee pay steps would likely be more than the City would be able to agree to, especially in a multi -year contract and without knowing what the future holds in the way of City costs, revenues, etc. Marcus Upchurch advised he would like to see the raises be in line with regular employees of 3% increments between steps. Chief Adcox said that he agreed that increases between steps should be meaningful and that it appears that there are currently too many steps to allow for this, particularly for sergeants and lieutenants. It is simply a matter of how much the City can afford to do and when. As an alternative to be explored, Chief Adcox advised that it would be helpful to look at how much it would cost to simply take the determined new market median for the bottom and top step of each rank and place a number of steps in between the two medians, at 3% increments. This means that the bottom median would stay the same, increase by 3% for as many steps necessary until the top median was reached. Chief Adcox reiterated that this option would have to be studied in order to determine the overall budget impact before it could even be considered, but was worth exploring. Ms. Anderson advised that the City's HR Department would look to see how this would work out with the existing market survey numbers. if this approach works out then it would be a possibility to look at the bottom and top numbers for median salary each year and implement the steps based on the 3% difference between steps. Ms. Anderson advised that she understood what was being proposed and committed to having the numbers for the next meeting. Chief Adcox went on to advise that, if the City was to agree to a 3 year contract, it would be very important for the City/Association to have something hammered out relating to the implementation of an Assessment Center before raises are implemented during the second