THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408290238
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 137 lines
The city is getting ready to change the way it rewards its employees by revamping a two-decade-old pay system in which raises vary widely and which many employees have complained promotes favoritism.
To do the job, officials are bringing in the team of consultants that recommended layoffs in June.
The pay study, by the David M. Griffith and Associates consulting firm, is expected to bring salaries in line with those of employees in other cities and in the private sector. The consultants also are expected to design a new plan that likely will be a form of the pay-for-performance plans used in other cities.
The last in-depth study of the city's pay plan that included all employees was done in the 1970s, City Manager V. Wayne Orton said.
Since then, raises have varied widely, according to a study of computer records by The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star. Some employees have been able to get raises above what the council approved in the annual budget.
In the past four years, the City Council has approved 13 percent in cost-of-living raises for all employees. Half of those also were given another 18 percent in raises through step increases approved by the council. The other half - employees who are at the top of the pay scale in their grade - are not eligible for those increases.
So half the employees would have automatically received raises equaling 31 percent in a four-year period.
But under the system, which also allows job studies, reclassifications and upgrades, dozens of workers got increases ranging from 35 percent to 80 percent.
The only way to get those raises was on a case-by-case basis - a practice that had become increasingly unpopular with employees who complained of favoritism.
To get a performance raise, employees asked their supervisors for a job study. If an individual or a group of employees could show through the study that they were doing more than listed in their job description, then they could be upgraded or reclassified, which usually meant a raise.
Over the past two years, 55 employees got raises when their jobs were reclassified or upgraded and one employee got a raise when his job title was changed. Another 144 promotions were given, according to city records.
The city has 1,787 employees.
One employee, Karen Ellis, now an executive assistant to the city manager, was reclassified three times in the past two years, boosting her salary by $5,000. After receiving those increases, Ellis got a 5 percent raise approved by the council in the annual budget, making her salary $49,700.
Seventeen of the 55 employees who received raises based on job studies in the past two years were executive secretaries, administrative and executive assistants and executives. Many of the 17 worked closely with the city manager.
Orton says he has never given a raise based on favoritism.
``It's not true that I've given to my `in group,' '' Orton said of charges made by some employees. ``I've given less raises than the last three city managers.''
Orton said he gave raises to his executive staff four years ago when he became city manager and reorganized the department. Most of his new appointees got raises equaling 10 percent of their salaries.
``These things were when I was setting my environment,'' Orton said.
The raises, he said, were discussed in a council meeting and were reported by the media.
They also weren't unusual, Orton said, because past city managers had given promotions, upgrades and merit raises to their executives. Department heads throughout the city also have the power to study jobs and give raises, although they must get approval through the finance office or the personnel office.
Officials in other cities said they have done the same thing on a limited basis.
Before he retired last month, Deputy City Manager Roy W. Cherry defended the pay study and past pay practices.
``I don't think you can design a program that someone doesn't have a problem with,'' Cherry said. ``Pay for performance can be very subjective. Every pay plan under the sun when it affects 1,700 employees is going to have inequities - or that's the way it will be perceived.''
Executives and their secretaries haven't been the only employees who have benefited from job studies and reclassifications. In the past two years, 43 were in jobs that had little or no contact with the city manager's office. Eleven of the employees were social workers who were reclassified at the state's request, said Charlotte Fletcher, the city's personnel director.
Others were in a range of jobs, including plumbing, maintenance, automotive, computer programming and secretarial jobs.
Some city employees have blamed those raises for the June layoffs of upper- and mid-level city employees, saying that if city officials hadn't handed out big raises, they could have eliminated 39 positions through attrition rather than layoffs.
Orton, however, said the layoffs were in his plans all along to create a smaller, more efficient staff. He said previous efforts to reduce the staff had only brought cuts in lower-level jobs.
Executives who got large raises in the past also weren't immune to the recent layoffs. Charles Johnson, the former director of Human Services, received the largest raises and most frequent promotions in the four-year period, computer records show.
Through a series of promotions, upgrades and cost-of-living raises, Johnson's salary increased 80 percent from $31,866 to $57,658. The study that recommended cutting mid- and top-level positions said his job wasn't needed.
Orton says the experts will design a system that will benefit both employees and the city's taxpayers. Council members have been calling for a pay-for-performance plan.
``Any revision to the system will be a significant improvement, ``Orton said, ``That's why I'm recommending the study.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphics
IN CURRENTS
Portsmouth readers will find a list of pay increases on Page 14
of today's Currents.
DEFINITIONS
Grade: Most employees have a grade and a step. Grades range from
3 to 44. The lowest salary under grade 3 is $9,277 annually. In the
top step of grade 44, the highest salary is $104,270.
Step: Within each grade there are 17 steps. For each step there
is a correlated pay increase.
Job study: A formal study requested by a worker or supervisor to
compare the worker's job description with his or her actual duties
and responsibilities.
Reclassification: When a single employee is promoted based on a
job study.
Upgrade: When a class of employees, such as executive
secretaries, are promoted to a higher grade.
Step increase: When the City Council makes across-the-board
increases in employees' step status. That would lead to an employee
at step A, for instance, being bumped up to step B. Currently about
25 percent of city employees are at the top of their grade and are
not eligible for step increases.
General increase: Also called a cost-of-living increase, it
affects all employees. The raises must be approved by the City
Council in its annual budget.
by CNB