Thomas Breen photo
Finance Chair Marchand: Making compensation "more competitive."
Alders signed off on boosting pension benefits and salary ranges for some top City Hall positions in a bid to reduce vacancies in the higher ranks of municipal government.
Local legislators took that vote Monday night during the latest regular bimonthly meeting of the full Board of Alders. The meeting took place in person in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
All 20 alders present voted unanimously in support of an ordinance amendment that — to quote from the title of the legislation itself — approves “adopting changes to Article 18 (Pension) of the Executive Management and Confidential Employees’ Personnel and Procedures Manual clarifying the pension benefits of the positions of Chief of Staff, Budget Director and Chief Technology Officer; and including the City Budget Director, Chief Technology Officer and Manager of Human Resources and Benefits as Key Employees.”
What does that mean?
The first change means that the so-called pension benefit “multiplier” for the chief of staff, budget director, and chief technology officer positions will now increase from 20 to 40 percent of their final budgeted salaries or the average of their last five years’ salaries — but only if those city government administrators start out in a municipal union job and then work their way up the ranks of City Hall.
The second change means that the roles of budget director, chief technology officer, and human resources manager will now be eligible for higher annual salary ranges of between $100,000 and $169,000, with the final negotiated salary for each position ultimately to be approved by the Board of Alders.
Click here to read a recent Independent article about a Finance Committee meeting at which city Chief of Staff Sean Matteson and now-retired former city Human Resources Manager Stephen Librandi detailed these requested changes. They pitched the committee alders on upping the pension benefits and salary ranges for these positions as part of an Elicker Administration effort to reverse vacancies and retain staff in high-ranking positions at City Hall.
Monday's Board of Alders meeting.
Click here to read the language of the now-approved ordinance amendment itself.
The pension benefit bump for the chief of staff, budget director, and chief technology officer positions “would have the effect of removing a historic disadvantage for staff hired into these positions who have risen through the ranks and who have formerly held positions represented by one of the unions,” Finance Committee Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand said Monday night.
The addition of the chief technology officer, budget director, and human resources manager positions to the city’s list of “key employees,” meanwhile, would “enable the administration to hire new employees for these positions at salaries more commensurate with their experience and more competitive with other municipalities in the state and region,” Marchand added.
The now-approved legislation comes as the city has roughly 290 vacancies for 1,456 budgeted positions, according to a recent count provided to the Independent by the city’s spokesperson for a different article about staffing shortages at the library.
It also comes as the city continues to look to hire for Librandi’s replacement now that he has retired after spending than a decade in the role of City Hall manager responsible for overseeing “all human resources, civil service and medical benefits operations.”
Seeing the state of the city, I think taxpayers are already overpaying for what we get. Let them go and get new people, esp some who are not "connected"