SUMMARY MINUTES OF SPECIAL MEETING

Monday, May 23, 2022 Held Remotely via Zoom

5:30 p.m.

PRESENT: Mayor Scully, Deputy Mayor Robertson, Councilmembers, Mork, Roberts, Pobee, and Ramsdell

ABSENT: Councilmember McConnell

STAFF: Debbie Tarry, City Manager; John Norris, Assistant City Manager; Melissa Muir, HR and Organizational Development Director; Kendyl Hardy, Deputy City Clerk

GUESTS: Doug Johnson, Vice President, Ralph Anderson and Associates

1. CALL TO ORDER

At 5:30 p.m., the meeting was called to order by Mayor Scully who presided.

2. ROLL CALL

Upon roll call by the Deputy City Clerk, all Councilmembers were present except for Councilmember Mork, who joined the meeting at 5:33 p.m. and Councilmember McConnell.

Deputy Mayor Robertson moved to excuse Councilmember McConnell for personal reasons. The motion was approved by unanimous consent.

3. UPDATE ON THE 2022 COMPENSATION STUDY

HR and Organizational Development Director, Melissa Muir, prefaced the presentation by stating that the focus of the special meeting is to collect Council feedback on the recommended scope of the City’s 2022 Compensation Study and she listed scope components and then introduced the City’s consultant, Doug Johnson, from Ralph Andersen and Associates.

Mr. Johnson spoke about the study objectives and explained that salary surveys are a fact-finding process to provide data to inform decision makers and help understand the labor market in order to optimize the City’s recruitment and retention of employees. He described pay plan development and stated that it is defined by organizational structure and services that may be compared to other organizations, along with a consideration for internal equity, to determine the market value for skills.

Next, Mr. Johnson described labor market selection criteria, listed the criteria selected for Shoreline, shared the list of survey agencies the City currently uses, and explained some of the disparities between them. He stated that the same comparable cities from the previous study are proposed to be used in the upcoming study and elaborated on the meaning behind the historical practices criteria. He also informed Council that the form of government of the comparable cities in the study would generally not impact agency to agency job matches.

Mr. Johnson said the next step would be to move into a comparative analysis to establish a market position which he said is generally between the 50^th and 75^th percentile. City Manager, Debbie Tarry, commented that the City has historically paid at the 50^th percentile, or median, of the market.

Responding to a question about the time required for an employee to reach the maximum step in a salary range, which is six years in Shoreline, Mr. Johnson said comparable cities will generally try to adopt similar trends in this respect but they would look into anything beyond five to eight years on a case-by-case basis to ensure the full value of a job is captured. He explained that the survey will look at labor rates but is not intended to analyze consumer price index increases, as it does not drive labor rates but may still be considered to help anticipate changes to salary over time. A question was asked regarding cash supplements and the dynamic between longevity and merit compensation and Ms. Tarry explained that the City does not have supplemental merit compensation and Mr. Johnson added that longevity and merit pay are retention mechanisms that would be included in the analysis if provided by other cities.

Mr. Johnson was asked to speak to how the job classifications are compared among agencies and he stated that when comparing like agencies there is a high likelihood of comparable positions but he said there will always be some variability and explained that comparisons are made through matching data points such as job description duties, position-controlled documents, and feedback processes to discover the best match. He then discussed next steps to inform staff of the study implementation, confirm survey parameters, and implement the survey process until the final report and presentation is complete. Ms. Muir commented that there is fine tuning to be done regarding new positions, specifically those assumed from the wastewater division, to define their classification but staff expect to have that resolved soon to be included in the study.

Regarding Council compensation, it was asked why it is surveyed separately and Ms. Tarry stated that Council adopted a Salary Commission process last year Councilmember Roberts commented that it would be helpful to have an idea of what role other Councils have in their compensation process.

Reflecting on the 2015 study, Councilmember Roberts said he does not believe any changes to the process are needed. Assistant City Manager, John Norris, recalled the City being below market during the 2015 study and he said that since then, Council has modified the cost-of-living adjustment to 100% of the consumer price index and expressed hope that the City is in a better market position at this time relative to Shoreline’s comparable cities. Ms. Tarry commented that upfront consensus from Council on compensation policy made it easier to implement at the staff level although not without challenges. Ms. Muir said she appreciates the funnel approach to collect feedback to allow for staff input.

4. ADJOURNMENT

At 6:25 p.m., Mayor Scully declared the meeting adjourned.

/s/ Kendyl Hardy, Deputy City Clerk