Pleasanton city management personnel could receive pay increases retroactive to Sept. 1 if the City Council approves a resolution Tuesday that recommends the salary adjustments.
City Manager Nelson Fialho asked for a 4.0 percent increase in the salary pool that is then distributed based on performance to his 55 managers and eight confidential employees. Fialho said the increases, which would cost the city an additional $397,000 this year, could mean those in the management pool might receive increases above 4 percent or some below that based on their last performance reviews.
The confidential employees are executive and administrative assistants and secretaries who perform work that is confidential in nature, including payroll, personnel records and similar duties. They, like the managers, are not represented by a formal bargaining group or union.
Fialho, himself, and City Attorney Michael Roush are not part of the management group subject to the pay increases.
The council considered the compensation increases at the end of its meeting Oct. 17, near the midnight hour. It scheduled a public hearing for next Tuesday to give the public an opportunity to review the proposal and have an opportunity to comment on it near the start of the meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Civic Center t 200 old Bernal Ave.
“I’m glad we’re going to review this proposal at a better time,” said Councilwoman Cindy McGovern. “Right now (about 11:40 p.m.), most people are in bed and asleep.”
The compensation resolution was supposed to have two components: a compensation adjustment based on the city staff’s customary review of management salaries in nearby and similarly-sized cities, and also results of a new study that the council ordered that compared Pleasanton city salaries to similar jobs and responsibilities in the private sector.
Council members Jerry Thorne and Cindy McGovern were assigned to supervise the project, with $50,000 appropriated to hire a consultant to conduct the study.
But that work has been delayed while a consultant was located with experience to undertake that work. The consultant then found it difficult to gain cooperation from local companies who fear that by opening their payroll books for a government inquiry that the information could become public and reported in the media.
Thorne said that while that study is now under way, a preliminary survey showed that the 4 percent increases proposed for managers now is “within the rate of increases we’re seeing in the private sector.”
Fialho said salary adjustments for Pleasanton managers are considered and usually made annually, with the effective date for making payroll changes Sept. 1. If his 4 percent proposal is approved Tuesday, the pay raises will be retroactive. Even then, that would be better than last year when managers received raises in the 3.5 percent range in mid-November.
In determining the adjustment, Fialho and his finance staff survey other cities, with the objective of making sure Pleasanton salaries are competitive. In their most recent survey, the group found that a few cities granted salary increases as high as 7.6 percent for Santa Clara fire department managers, and as low as nothing in Hayward, where negotiations are under way. Close by, Dublin declined to disclose its compensation increase percentages, Livermore reported 3.9 percent and San Ramon 3 percent. The survey also showed the managers in emergency services, such as police and fire, tended to have higher rates of salary increases than those in mainline management and administration.
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