City to Discuss Employee Compensation & Benefits

The city council will hold a workshop at 3 pm, 5/10/2016, at city hall to hear staff presentations on employee compensation and benefits for FY-17.

The first part focuses on employee compensation and uses the same old flawed methodology as used in prior years. That is, compare Georgetown employee salaries with those in other central Texas communities and with select cities state wide. This methodology results in a continuous ratcheting up of salaries as each city does exactly the same thing! Cities all raise their salaries which results in all cities raising their salaries ad infinitum without regard to changes in productivity or services rendered.

There are other methods available for determining the fair compensation levels for city employees that the city should investigate to get out of the current trap of constantly raising salaries.

The only benefit covered in the presentation is the city self insured health program. The program is less than 2 years old, so, no long term trends are observable. In the short term it seems to be working to save the city money, however, the presentation is only about finances and there is little information about the number of employees covered and the severity of the claims compared to national averages.

The staff is investigating the feasibility of establishing a city clinic for employees; establishing an employee health intervention program: and purchasing health monitoring software.  Staff is also investigating the cost of providing dental coverage.

The major issue NOT discussed as part of employee benefits is the city retirement program. Hopefully this will be discussed in a later workshop.

At some point in the budget cycle it seems it would be prudent to examine the cost of all employee compensation and benefits. For example, how much does vacation time cost? How much does lost time due to medical or other reasons cost? Where is the overtime cost booked and how much is it and what are the long term trends?