HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-18-12 Meet and Confer Committee MeetingTHE CITY OF LA PORTE MEET & CONFER COMMITTEE MET THE 18" DAY OF JULY, 2012 AT 3:00 P.M.
AT CITY HALL, COUNCIL CHAMBERS, 604 WEST FAIRMONT PARKWAY, LA PORTE, TEXAS.
1. CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 3:00 p.m.
Attendees: Corby Alexander, Traci Leach, Kenith Adcox, Katherine Anderson, Matthew
Novosad, Marcus Upchurch, David Huckabee, Chris Paige and Tom Barbee. Brian Larkey
attended in the audience.
2. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM JUNE 20, 2012 MEETING.
Minutes were reviewed and a motion to approve was made by Chief Adcox, all attendees from
last meeting were in favor.
3. OPEN DISCUSSION RELATING TO ITEMS INTRODUCED BY THE POLICE ASSOCIATION AND/OR
THE CITY OF LA PORTE, REGARDING COMPENSATION, LEAVE PROVISIONS, WORKING
CONDITIONS, AND CIVIL SERVICE PREEMPTIONS.
Chief Adcox began the discussions regarding compensation and indicated that the City felt
comfortable with what would be required to bring officers in -line with the current wage median
for comparable cities. The required increase averaged 2.97%. Chief Adcox advised that this
Increase would be in addition to continued step increase that each officer receives on their
employment anniversary date. Since step increases are comparable to the merit increases that
are planned for civilian employees, this additional 2,97% salary adjustment could be equated to
a cost of living increase, which is currently not being planned for civilian employees. As such,
Chief Adcox advised that the City felt the offer in question was very fair.
Matt Novosad indicated that he had some concern that they will be behind the median once
again due timing as some of the comparable agencies are in the process of negotiating pay
increases now. it was discussed that this will always be a factor, no matter when the contract is
negotiated. For budgeting purposes, however, a "line -in -the -sand" will have to be selected for
when salary numbers are collected from all of the agreed upon comparable cities. For
budgeting purposes, this has to be done in April/May so the City can finalize its budget by June.
Additionally, Matt Novosad asked if it was possible to do a pay "scale" compression, whereas
there would be only 10 steps for Patrol, 6 steps for Sergeants, and 4 steps for Lieutenants. He
advised that the Association had done a preliminary study of this option and that, in order to do
this, it would add approximately another $112,000 overall to the city budget. This would be in
addition to the $175,000 that the City is already anticipating having to spend in order to bring
officer pay back up to the regional median. If possible, the association would like to see this
happen, even if it occurs in phases (shrink scale down first for Patrol, 2"d year Sergeant, 3rd year
Lieutenant or reverse order dependent on impact). Mr. Alexander stated the City would have
to look at the impact that the compression would have.
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
fiscal year of the contract. He advised the City could not wait three years to begin discussing
the need for an Assessment Center again because promoting qualified leaders for the
department is just too critical and the department clearly needs something more than a mere
textbook test in order to do this.
According to Chief Adcox, the ultimate goal would be to use a mutually agreed upon
independent outside testing firm and that 50% of the candidate's score would be from the
standard written test and 50°% would be from a practical exercise Assessment Center.
Candidates would, however, have to pass the written test in order to participate in the
Assessment Center and seniority points would be applied once the final test scores were tallied.
The Chief advised he would like the Association members to help develop the process, imposing
any reasonable requirements they feel are needed to ensure that the Assessment Center and
entire promotional process is fair, consistent, honest, transparent, and meaningful.
Unless otherwise agreed, promotional testing would continue to be held annually, so that there
is always a current promotional list in place.
Chief Adcox distributed copies of ideas he is proposing in regard to wages and leave pool that
were prepared prior to current meeting based on June 201h meeting.
There was general discussion on the leave pool, and Chief advised that it would have to come
out of vacation banks. Chief asked Tom Barbee to possibly work on the language. Mr. Barbee
advised that most Cities do have an "opt out" form and it is an option to do that each calendar
year. However, you have to contribute to the pool to use the time from the pool.
4. SET TIME AND DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting was set for August 1, 2012 at 3:00 pm.
S. COMMITTEE COMMENTS
None,
6. ADJOURNMENT
Meeting was adjourned at 4:47 p.m.
APPROVED ON THIS THE \ DAY OF 9 - 2012.
Ken Adcox, Chief of Police
ovosad, LPPO�Prresident�id..t