HARLINGEN — The city is launching its first study into employee staffing levels and pay ranges in 15 years.
City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez is negotiating with a consulting firm that would conduct a classification and compensation study along with a staffing analysis to help officials determine the city hall’s staffing levels, job qualifications and employee pay grades.
“This is going to be a comprehensive report on every position in the city except for police and fire,” Gonzalez told commissioners during a meeting Wednesday. “They’re going to compare a lot of what they look at to other communities in the state and maybe even in the nation.”
On Thursday, Assistant City Manager Josh Ramirez said negotiations will determine the study’s cost.
Considering firms’ proposals
During the meeting, Commissioners considered proposals from Evergreen Solutions, based in Okotoks, Canada; Bolton, a Baltimore firm; and Gallagher Benefit Services, from Centennial, Colo.
Amid discussion, Commissioner Ford Kinsley suggested Gonzalez open negotiations with Evergreen Solutions.
“They had the best plan, the best details step-by-step on how they were going to do it and shortest time frame,” he told commissioners. “I didn’t see the other two were even close to Evergreen.”
If negotiations with Evergreen fail, commissioners requested Gonzalez enter into talks with Bolton.
In response, Gonzalez said Evergreen’s proposal shows it charges “reasonable” fees.
“One of the things about Evergreen is they put some cost estimates for what they had done for other cities and it was reasonable,” he told commissioners. “I think we should be able to work out some sort of a reasonable compensation with Evergreen to actually get started.”
On Thursday, Kinsley said Evergreen’s proposing conducting the study within a four-month period while the other firms presented timetables of about six months.
“It’s pretty much a review from the bottom up,” he said. “They’re going to compare what we pay with the local market and other cities our type.”
First study in 15 years
Officials here haven’t conducted a classification and compensation study since 2007, city records show.
Since then, they’ve set employees’ pay ranges based on job descriptions, Gonzalez said.
In June, Mayor Norma Sepulveda proposed the city conduct a classification and compensation study to help determine proper staffing levels and fair employee pay.
Amid the nation’s labor shortage, she said she was concerned city departments might not be properly staffed and employees adequately paid.
Background
As commissioners work on a proposed $53.5 million general fund budget, their focus includes boosting employees’ pay.
So far, they’ve set aside about $1.2 million to cover pay increases, earmarking $647,497 of that total to boost hourly wages to $10 for employees making $8 to $9 an hour.
As part of the proposed general fund budget, Gonzalez is setting aside about $37.2 million, or about 71 percent of revenues, to pay employee salaries and benefits.
