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Home My WebLink About79-30 RESOLUTION NO. 79-30 RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF UKIAH AMENDING THE PAY PLAN 9 101~ 1978, describes such a merit pay plan, 117!~ NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City of Ukiah 12!iI Pay Plan is hereby amended by the attachment of the City i Manager's memorandum of September 25, 1978. 14 15 16 17 18 19 2O 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 80 81 WHEREAS the Memorandum of Understanding reached with the Operating Engineers for fiscal year 1978-79 provides that a merit pay plan for the City of Ukiah Employees shall be effective October 1, 1978, and WHEREAS the City Manager's memorandum of September 25, ATTEST: City Clerk PASSED AND ADOPTED this 18th day of October 1978, by the following roll call vote: AYES:Councilmembers Hickey, Myers, Simpson, Vice Mayor Snyder NOES: None ABSENT: Mayor Brannon MEMORANDUM DATE: TO: FROM: SUBJECT: September 25, 1978 Department Heads City Manager MERIT PAY Effective October 1st the City will have in place a merit pay plan for those employees who are not already covered by incen- tive pay. Typically, persons considering merit pay plans begin by attempting to develop criteria against which performance is to be measured. This is done because of the belief that evalua- tion ought not to be subjective or that where there is a recog- nition that evaluation is subjective, there is a feeling that objective criteria~should be utilized to the fullest extent pos- sible. It is my opinion that this initial approach is in error and leads to most of the problems in merit system evaluation. I believe that we must admit the reality that evaluation is sub- jective for all except the most menial production line types of employment. While it is easily possible to make a list or de- scription of what constitutes the essential parts of a job, how well each of those elements is accomplished by the employee re- mains a subjective judgment. It is an essential part of any employment relationship that the employee maintain a good working relationship with their super- visor and perform to the satisfaction of that supervisor. A merit pay system should be based on the following premises: 1) That all evaluation is subjective and should be recog- nized and treated as such. 2) That the employee has the right to know what is expected of him and to have the criteria expressed clearly to him or her. 3) That the employee is entitled to know, on a regular basis, his or her supervisor's opinion of how well he is fulfill- ing the criteria. If these principles are accepted, it becomes relatively easy to design an evaluation system that will describe the job expected, (this is done in our classification manual) and a procedure where- by the employee is advised on a regular basis of his supervisor's opinion of his work. It is important to recognize that this is not an objective evaluation of the employee's worth but a state- I~E MO RAN DUM September 25, 1978 Page 2 ment by the supervisor of his opinion. I believe that 'if this can be recognized, the improved communication between supervisor and employee will result in a higher level of performance. One of the elements of effective supervision is the ability to award outstanding performance. Public pay plans have historically and traditionally been based on the premise of, "equal pay for equal work". The theory here is that all police officers perform the same work and there~fore should receive the same pay. This may look good in a theory, but in reality is far from the actual case. Levels of human performance on the job or in most fields of human endeavor are spread across a wide continuum. If the skill to be evaluated is fleetness of foot, a stop watch serves as an objective criteria which can accurately place a field of runners in their relative skill order. In measuring the performance of a police officer, however, this cannot be easily done. But the fact that remains is that we make these evaluations every day and every supervisor has in his mind an opinion of the relative worth of his subordinates. The supervisor's goal is to bring all of his employees to a level where they perform at the top of their ability. In typical public employment there exists no external incentive for the employee nor does the supervisor have the ability to offer incentive for higher performance levels. The current pay plan actually works as a disincentive to higher per- formance levels since compensation is the same as long as minimal standards are met. I believe the City should give its supervisors the tools necessary to encourage optimum performance by all employees. I believe the supervisor, department head, and City Manager should have the authority to grant additional compensation to those employees whose performance warrants it. Clearly, there must be some limits to the number of employees who can be recognized in this way or the pressure on supervisors to elevate all of their employees becomes irresistible. The establishment of this system I believe is rela- tively simple to develop and administer, will be easily understood by the employees, will recognize outstanding performance and will give supervisors an opportunity to offer incentives and rewards for high levels of performance. Eligible classes will include typist clerk, account clerk, steno clerk, clerk dispatcher, senior account clerk, senior steno clerk, laborer, maintenance worker, purchasing assistant, secretary, airport attendant, park maintenance attendant, street attendant, line attendant helper, meter reader, parking enforcement officer, street sweeper operator, heavy, equipment operator, park maintenance lead worker, street mainten- ance lead worker, supervising community services officer, apprentice line attendant, equipment mechanic, airport supervisor, engineering MEMORANDUM September 25, 1978 Page 3 technician, recreation supervisor, equipment maintenance supervisor, planning assistant, street supervisor, accountant, assistant pur- chasing agent, office supervisor, utility service attendant, director of parks and recreation, electric technician, civil engineering assis- tant, building official, electrical supervisor, assistant electrical distribution engineer, assistant director of public works, electrical distribution engineer, director of community development, director of finance, city attorney and director of public works. There are two merit steps in the plan - Step 1 which is 2-~% of base salary and is limited to 25% of the work force or to those performing at the third quartile of all eligible employees. Step 2 or 7%% of base salary is available to those employees performing in the fourth quartile or the top 25% of all eligible employees. In order to imple- ment this plan, the following will be required of all department heads having eligible personnel, prior to Monday, October 2nd: 1) Review your files to determine that an evaluation has been done on each eli- gible employee in the last 12 months. This evaluation is to be uti- lized in reaching your judgment as to eligibility. 2) You are asked to submit to my office in rank order a list of those employees who you would recommend for merit consideration. Please note that although 50% of your work force may be eligible, there is no requirement that you utilize the full quota. The City Manager will have the final authority to determine and award merit increases based on Council established policy that no more than 50% of the eligible employees shall be eligible for merit increase and no more than 25% shall be eligible for the higher step. Awards of merit compensation under this plan will be retroactive to October 1, 1978, will not be permanent and will be subject to review on an annual basis. In making your evaluations and recommendations as to employees for con- sideration under this merit plan, please review the personnel rules, pages 11 and 12 with respect to the regular salary plan. Note that Step C requires satisfactory performance, Step D requires outstanding performance and Step E requires performance that is consistently ex- cellent. Therefore, excellence alone does not create eligibility for the additional merit compensation. What is required here is that the supervisor make a judgment ~tothe relative merit of his employee. Each department head is encouraged to utilize the first line supervisor in preparing evaluations and making recommendations. A major goal of this plan is to give the first line supervisor the ability to reward and recognize exceptional performance. Another major goal of this plan is to encourage productivity improve- ment and cost savings for the City. Therefore, these merit steps, as distinguished from the pay plan steps which are awarded for exceptional performance, generally should be utilized to recognize employees who have shown outstanding initiative in developing or implementing cost savings in their particular operation or who have demonstrated an MEMORANDUM September 25, 1978 Page 4 ability to improve productivity levels through changed procedures, improved techniques, or other actions which have increased efficiency of the City operation. James A. Swayne · City Manager JAS:ar