Agenda - Council - 12/10/1996 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I ! I I I I i I I Case #2: Co~nsider Increase in Rates for Volunteer Fire Fighters Administrative services Manager Waite Smith stated that the Fire Department came with a proposal to increase the r~tes for fire calls and drills in the coming two years. She included some information for comparing wages of other volunteer fire fighters. She added that the Fire Chief was very diligent ~bout calculating out the rates requested and shows what the additional cost to the budget will be. Tti. e 40% increase they are requesting for 1997 amounts to 60¢ per increment and they are requesting that the door be "left open" for the 1998 increases. She added that they are not out of line with other cities. Motion by Councilmember Beahen and seconded by Mayor Hardin to recommend City Council approve increases :in compensation for Fire Department personnel as presented, effective January 1, 1997. Motion carried. Voting Yes: Mayor Hardin and Councilmember Beahen. Voting No: None. Absent: Councilrriember Beyer. Ms. Waite Smith added that the Fire Fighters are paid $5 per event when they are still in training, plus the Fire Chief~ does do an appraisal on all the Fire Fighters, which is not required. Case #3: City Administrator's Performance Appraisal Administrative Seryices Manager Waite Smith stated that the performance appraisal forms had been distributed to the Mayor and Councilmembers and to the Department Heads. She transferred the information from~ the completed forms onto one form and sent that to the Mayor and Councilmembers. She converted letter scores to numbers to compare the elected officials' evaluations with the Department Heads' evaluations. She noted there was not a lot of difference in the appraisals. Th'.e Department Heads were pretty much in agreement. There were lots of "meets standards" on botli sides. One place in the Department Head score that was "below standard" was in evaluating employees. They wished they would get more feed back. She reported a wide difference in respf~nses from elected officials in the area of communication, decision making, dependability and .~ommitment. She suggested that the Committee consider concentrating on the areas where the rang was uneven. The different ratings are due to different perceptions. She thought there are Pr°bably different expectations. The last item to consider is the Administrator's contract. Given il~e fact that the ratings are in agreement and are by no means unacceptable, it's time to do a new Contract. She handed out the proposed contract. She continued that Ryan has had a contract hem before. She checked out the areas where this contract would differ from what he's had before. We suggest the contract run for two years - to the end of 1998. She noted the severance clause ~ad added that this is very typically in contracts for city managers and administrators. It'~ pretty normal to have about a six-month severance clause but, due to the size of the City, etc., ~we are recommending a four-month severance or until he would fred new employment, whichever comes first. With regard to the car allowance, in 1996, all but two cities were paying highar car allowances than Ramsey. She requested the car allowance be increased another $50 to bririg it to $300. The average in other cities is $320 per month. The average salary for Administrators!in Stanton Class IV cities was $69,500 last year and up to $70,300 this year. Ryan is getting 82i5% of that average. Last year he ranked third from the bottom with regard to pay and this year t~e will probably be at the bottom. She suggested looking at similar increases to that of the bargain'.rog units - AFSCME received 5%, Exempt received 5% and LELS received a 3% increase, but with ~tep increases which are more than 5% over ail. Our goal is to try to get salaries up there closer to the average. Ms. Waite Smith recommended increasing his salary to $63,000 in 1996, $66,000 in 1997, and to $69,000 for 1998. Even then, he would be paid less in 1998 than the average administrator in a city with similar population was paid in 1995. She quoted the wage policy which says~that by the time an employee has been here for seven years, they should be at Personnel Committee/September 9, 1996 Page 3 of 4 1/9