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Consent

Brentwood City Commission Agenda

Meeting Date:	06/22/2020
Resolution 2020-52 - Adoption of Proposed Classification and Pay Plan for Fiscal Year 2021
Submitted by:	Mike Worsham, Human Resource
Department:	Human Resource

Information

Subject

Resolution 2020-52 - Adoption of Proposed Classification and Pay Plan for Fiscal Year 2021.

Background

Annually a review of the City’s current Classification and Pay Plan is conducted to ensure that it remains competitive, allowing the City to achieve its stated budget goal of being able to “attract and retain the best employees available through maintaining competitive pay and fringe benefit programs.” Part of the annual review includes salary comparisons between selected Brentwood positions and those of several other relevant Tennessee governments.

In 2017, Burris, Thompson & Associates, a leading Tennessee-based compensation consulting firm with extensive experience with governmental entities was engaged by the City to conduct a comprehensive compensation and salary study. This project included comparing all positions in the City’s pay plan with similar positions in 14 benchmark public sector employers that are representative of the competitive labor market for the City of Brentwood. Because the City also competes with general business and industry for employees for many City jobs, market data from general business and industry for jobs similar to those at the City of Brentwood were compiled from the latest Economic Research Institute (ERI) Salary Assessor database using data for the Nashville area.

Recommendations from this project were approved in the 2018 Fiscal Year Operating Budget and included increasing all pay ranges and positions within the City’s Classification and Pay Plan by 8.7% to position City jobs at the 75^th percentile of the relevant labor market.

At the beginning of Fiscal Year 2019 the overall Classification and Pay Plan was increased by an additional 4% to ensure the City maintains its competitive position in the labor market. It was also increased again, for this reason, by 1.5% at the beginning on Fiscal Year 2020.

In March of this year, the City’s compensation consultants, Burris, Thompson & Associates compared benchmark positions in the City’s pay plan to similar jobs from employers in the relevant job market, using current salary data. Overall, the results of this review showed that Brentwood’s current salary structure is now approximately 97% of the 75^th percentile of the relevant labor market.

The current pay plan consists of 16 basic pay grades with sub-grades for the various public safety positions. Each pay grade has a corresponding pay range and an approximate 50% spread from the minimum amount to the maximum amount. This allows for increased earning potential for most career employees. Also, several Brentwood job classifications have multiple levels that cover more than one pay range (i.e. Accounting Clerk I and II, Maintenance Worker and Senior Maintenance Worker, Equipment Operator I, II and III, Police Officer I and II, Librarian I and II). This provides a meaningful career path in many functional areas within the organization.

Staff Recommendation

Staff recommendations for Fiscal Year 2021 include the following:

Under normal circumstances staff would recommend that the City’s Classification and Pay Plan and current pay rates of all employees as of June 30, 2020, be adjusted upward for FY 2021. This market adjustment would help maintain the competitiveness of the City’s pay plan within our labor market and help with recruitment efforts of qualified applicants for all job openings. However, due to current economic conditions and uncertainty of revenue projections resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic staff cannot recommend an increase to the pay plan at this time. However, should the revenue forecasts improve as the country emerges from the pandemic later this calendar year, staff recommends reconsideration in mid-FY 2021.
A new position of Administrative Services Coordinator be created and classified in Pay Group E and that the key senior administrative employee in each department, currently classified as Administrative Assistant in Pay Group D, be assigned to this new position to more accurately reflect the job duties and responsibilities of these key department administrative positions and to more closely align with similar positions in the pay plan.
The title of Cross Connection Control Technician in Group E be changed to Utility Programs Coordinator to more accurately reflect the responsibilities of the position beyond just the Cross Connection Control program.

Attached for your review is the current FY 2021 Classification and Pay Plan.

Fiscal Impact

Attachments
Resolution 2020-52
FY 21 Class & Pay Plan - Proposed
Signed Resolution