Manchester's citywide pay and classification study in limbo after Tuesday vote

May 8—A comprehensive study of Manchester city employees' pay that has been going on for nine months could be shelved and a major compensation overhaul scuttled, after a surprise committee vote Tuesday night.

Members of the Committee on Community Improvement voted 3-2 to receive and file a request from the city's human resources director to extend the end date for the study to June 30, 2026. In favor were Aldermen Chris Morgan, Ross Terrio and Crissy Kantor. Opposed were Pat Long and James Burkush.

If the full board agrees with that recommendation when it takes up the issue May 21, work on the study will stop June 30 — and the $250K already spent on the project will go "down the tubes," as Long put it.

The study, funded by the city's special revenue reserve account, is a review and analysis of the current staff compensation structure — known around the city as "Yarger-Decker," after the consulting firm that developed it.

The study is supposed to contain recommendations for improvements to ensure "internal equity and external competitiveness," according to a 2022 memo from former Mayor Joyce Craig to aldermen requesting funding for the project.

"Is there any chance that the study will come back with a salary wage decrease?" Committee Chairman Morgan asked city Human Resources Director Lisa Drabik.

"No," Drabik replied.

"OK, so based on the taxpayers — which I'm looking out for — I'd like to make a motion to receive the file," Morgan said.

"I certainly respect your interest in the taxpayer," Long countered. "However, my interest is with the workers who the taxpayers depend on. So I'd like to see this go and I would like to know where we stand in terms of compensation for our workers."

Opposition to big pay hike

On Wednesday, Morgan said Drabik's comment was "very concerning to me and other members of my committee."

"We do not, at this time, believe a large-scale increase is in the best interests of taxpayers. Therefore we received and filed the new study," Morgan said. "We do believe we can incrementally fix problems with the current Yarger-Decker system, and elevate those employees on the lower pay scale, while saving taxpayers money."

Step raises already included in current contracts with many municipal employee unions would not be impacted if the compensation study is abandoned.

In a memo to aldermen, Drabik had asked the committee to extend the end date "as the work is ongoing and will not conclude by the current project end date of 6/30/24."

Evergreen Solutions, a national firm based in Tallahassee, Florida, was selected last June from a field of four finalists who responded to a request for proposals by the city to complete the study.

Evergreen had proposed an eight-month timeline to complete the study and anticipated having preliminary pay recommendations and cost scenarios to the city in December 2023 or January 2024, in time for the city's budget process.

In 2023, aldermen authorized spending up to $750,000 on the study. All staff positions are included in the study.

"We have over 450 job classifications in the city, and we are going systematically through each one to make sure that we're doing this right," Drabik said. "There may be recommended ordinance changes that go along with it, because right now the ordinance spells out how people move within the system. So it's a lot bigger than just salary ranges — it's a whole system, which is one of the reasons why it's taking so long.

"There's not a hard deadline in the contract because of course, this is a very large project."

Study 65% complete

Drabik said work on the study is about 65% complete, with about $250,000 of the $750,000 spent thus far. Work began last August.

A presentation on the work completed to date is expected to be given to aldermen sometime this summer.

Evergreen came to Manchester for four to five days, completing more than 85 presentations and meetings with employees, unions, department heads and aldermen, Drabik said.

"It was more or less to explain the process of how the study would work, but also to gather feedback from all of those folks about what their impressions are about our current pay system and how it works."

After consulting with Drabik, Long made a motion looking to extend the deadline to June 30, 2025, rather than 2026, looking to alleviate concerns that another two years was too long to wait for results.

The motion was never accepted by Morgan.

"Whatever work and outstanding bills are out there, we've got to pay, so we're gonna have to come up with that money," Long said. "That's going to hit us in the budget, so we're looking at a tax rate that's going to increase because we have to pay those bills, because we're contractually bound by them. I just want you guys to know what you're doing by receiving and filing."

"I understand, thank you, Alderman Long," Morgan said. "I think that'll be far less overall for the taxpayers in the long run. "

The way city jobs are classified and employees are paid and reviewed for raises changed in 1999, with the implementation of an employee reclassification study, developed with the help of consultant Yarger-Decker Associates.

The employee reclassification system introduced performance and skill as factors in determining raises. Before that, city employees received raises based strictly on seniority.

The need for a classification and compensation study was raised a few years ago by now-retired city Human Resources Director Kathleen Ferguson.

Ferguson at the time said that thanks to collective bargaining efforts, the original Yarger-Decker scale had morphed into multiple scales, creating inequities between employees within city government.