COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - MINUTES - 11/27/2007
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE – CITY OF MUSKEGO Approved
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2007
Mayor Johnson called the meeting to order at 6:37 p.m. and led those present in the Pledge of
Allegiance.
ROLL CALL
Present: Mayor Johnson, Aldermen Snead (arrived at 7:07 pm), Pavelko, Borgman, Werner,
Melcher, and Fiedler. Ald. Schaefer was excused. Department Heads/Other Staff present: City
Administrator Sheiffer, Finance Supervisor Mueller, Police Chief Paul Geiszler, Assessor Laura
Mecha, Utility Superintendent Scott Kloskowski, Information Systems Director Joe Sommers,
Plan Director Jeff Muenkel and Recreation Director Craig Anderson.
STATEMENT OF PUBLIC NOTICE
Deputy Clerk Blenski stated that the meeting had been noticed in accordance with the Open
meeting Law.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA -
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Ald. Borgman moved for approval of the minutes of the meeting held November 13, 2007.
Seconded by Ald. Fiedler, motion carried.
NEW BUSINESS
Discuss Nonrepresented Merit Program
Craig Anderson, Jeff Muenkel and Sharon Mueller were spokespersons for the Nonrepresented
Employees.
They reviewed the Nonrepresented Merit Program and pointed out some of the deficiencies with
the existing program. The intent for the pay for performance program is to recruit, retain, and
value City non-represented employees and this is accomplished by achieving internal equity,
establishing competitive salary rates and motivating employees by recognizing individual value,
worth and contribution.
In 2006, a more user-friendly system was proposed by an evaluation committee and adopted by
the Council but amended to eliminate compounding. It was explained that currently
nonrepresented employees are unable to proceed through the salary range with the elimination
of compounding. This is contrary to all other bargaining units and doesn’t work in the current
system that is setup with salary ranges of “below midpoint”, “midpoint”, and “above midpoint”.
The request is to reinstate the compounding element.
Mayor stated that the current system does not work. Prior Council made a change to the
system on the floor when the evaluations came through Council in the past and this was a
mistake. Council should have sent this back to staff to discuss the ramifications first. Thus, we
now must find a way to make the system work with the salary ranges currently in place.
Committee of the Whole Page 2
November 27, 2007
The aldermen had the following concerns:
Reviews tend to be more favorable and don’t usually display the bell curve
Worries that merit pay can affect budgets
Provisional, Effective should be at 0%
Possibly keep to 4 steps instead of 5 – maybe combine Outstanding and Superior
Should only reward high performance employees.
Ald. Werner favored a step system and wondered what step incentive system would look like in
order for an employee to reach top after 10 years. Alderman Fiedler favored the current system,
although thought that “effective” and lower should be limited to 0% merit. Alderman Fiedler also
was on board with Alderman’s Werner’s proposal of the step system as long as a mechanism
was integrated that restricted merit pay to those providing services at “effective” or lower.
Mayor felt direction has to be given to staff.
It was the consensus of the committee to ask for a plan from staff that allowed a form of merit
pay, either a step system or performance system, which would make it realistic for employees to
reach their maximum while continuing a conservative approach. The committee will discuss at a
future meeting.
Ald. Snead moved to adjourn at 7:33 pm. Seconded by Ald. Fiedler, motion carried
Respectfully submitted,
Cathie M. Anderson
Transcribing Secretary
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