MOUNT VERNON – Mount Vernon’s failure to fill vacancies in its engineering and utilities departments because salaries are too low may force the city to raise wages for other positions to avoid ill feelings by existing employees.
Safety-Services Director Rick Dzik told the City Council during its Oct. 4 meeting that three qualified applicants for the city’s assistant utility director position said they couldn’t accept the job for less than $72,000. Utility Director Tom Hinkle’s salary is less than that at $71,000.
Dzik said creating the new positions and raising wages need to go together because to fill positions like the assistant utility director, the salary a new hire will require is at least as much as the department head currently makes.
“Unless we can kind of address the compensation issue all at once, including with the new positions need to hire, we're going to create some frustration amongst employees,” he said.
What makes the situation more serious is that Councilmember Mike Hillier’s sharing of City Engineer Brian Ball’s warning that failing to hire a qualified assistant utility director will soon begin to cost the city in fines from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Without qualified staff, the city can’t perform the work and tests required by that agency in a consent order that requires them.
Human Resources Director Maurine Perry said seven employees have left the city since she started in her position on June 1. Some of them said they will have opportunity for career growth in their new jobs that weren’t possible with Mount Vernon. Workload and work-life balance in addition to higher pay were other reasons they cited for leaving.
“We also lost our best wastewater candidate due to the schedule that the wastewater people have to work,” she said.
If the next shift’s wastewater employee doesn’t show up, the person already working must stay until someone relieves him or her, which Perry said doesn’t go well with a work-life balance.
Councilmember Janis Seavolt asked how the departures compared with the past.
Auditor Terry Scott said one or two employees leave in a year.
City practice has been to closely match benefits for non-union positions to what Mount Vernon negotiates with unions for those employees, he said.
Councilmember Samantha Scoles said her philosophy on employee compensation is that wages are one layer of the overall compensation package. Three other factors are involved, she said: good leadership, an inviting and a supportive culture, and accountability across all departments.
If a good employee sees another worker clocking out even when more work remains, that employee will have a hard time putting in more effort, she said.
She did express concern that the legislation presented to the council on setting pay ranges also created some suggested new positions by their inclusion.
“Those positions need to be specifically authorized by council, and they have not yet been,” Law Director Robert Broeren said.
Councilman John Francis said his philosophy on employee pay is that everyone should earn the pay they deserve, not just for the time they’ve held a job.
“If there's a problem with quality or workload, we don't control that. We do not control that. If there's a problem with work environment, that we're losing people, we don't control that,” he said.
That’s the administration’s responsibility. He said the council takes the information and proposals on wages and benefits presented to them and sets them following that guidance.
The council must look out for the city’s taxpayers, as they represent their interests, which he said is called taxation with representation. The hard-working individuals who are busing tables, washing dishes, waiting, flipping hamburgers, running the gas station are the ones paying the bills, Francis said.
“I am very worried about the issue of salary compression for people who are currently here, who then may become dissatisfied and leave. So we need to think about that as an issue and not forget the people who have been loyal to us,” Councilmember Julia Warga said.
Scott told council that to follow recommendations in the Clemans Nelson compensation analysis will take longer than the three years the report suggested. With the comments from councilmembers, he and the administration should be able to create a proposal.
