WORK SESSION of the Greenbelt City Council held Wednesday, May 30, 2001, for the purpose of discussing the findings and recommendations of the Hendricks compensation study.

Mayor Davis started the meeting at 8:10 p.m. It was held in the Multipurpose Room of the Community Center.

PRESENT WERE: Council members Edward V.J. Putens, Rodney M. Roberts, Alan Turnbull, Thomas X. White, and Mayor Judith F. Davis.

STAFF PRESENT INCLUDED: Michael P. McLaughlin, City Manager; Consuella Harris, Human Resource Officer; David E. Moran, Assistant to the City Manager; Celia W. Craze, Director, Department of Planning and Community Development; Chief James Craze, Police Department; Kenny Hall, Director, Public Works; Kathleen Gallagher, City Clerk; and others.

ALSO PRESENT WERE: Barbara Young, Greenbelt News Review; and Gerald Gay, the Gazette.

Mr. McLaughlin noted he had sent a memo forward to Council a week ago regarding possibilities for implementation of the Hendricks study. Ms. Harris gave an overview of Mr. Hendricks’ methodology and findings.

Mr. White said that, before turning to the topic of implementation, he would like to know if staff had questions about the retitling of positions and reorganization of the job structure. Mr. Turnbull said he too would like to know if the overall restructuring "rang true" with the staff.

Mayor Davis clarified that there are two issues: the new titles assigned to many positions and the restructuring of the classification system. Mr. McLaughlin further clarified that there will be an appeals process for individuals who believe their positions have been mistitled or misclassified.

Karl Skaggs, Public Works, said he thought in general the reclassification had been handled well but that there might be a question regarding automotive technicians.

Mr. White asked representatives of the Fraternal Order of Police if there was a problem with the compression of the PFC and MPO positions. Speaking for the F.O.P., Gordon Pracht said there was a problem, since the whole idea of the establishment of the MPO position was to allow expansion of the PFC position. Mr. McLaughlin said he was forwarding the F.O.P.’s letter about this to Mr. Hendricks. There was discussion of upgrading the Corporal position to a 12 so that the MPO could move up to 11. Mr. Pracht said he thought Mr. Hendricks had not talked with enough of the MPOs. Chief Craze said he had two long conversations with Mr. Hendricks in which he told him that if anything had to be compressed into the same level, it was more appropriate to group MPO with Corporal than with PFC. Chief Craze also said the City’s Lieutenant position should be titled Captain. The Police Department did not have a problem with the combining of the public safety job classifications with those of other City employees.

Mayor Davis asked if there were other problems in Public Works. Mr. Hall said he had heard of a number of individuals who were not satisfied with their titles or classifications but that he was not sure how many were involved. He said they had been informed of the appeals process.

There was discussion among Council with Ms. Harris and Mr. McLaughlin regarding the "conversion" of employees into the new system. It was explained that because the work done to date involved a restructuring of all job categories, and because actual salary information was used, the classifications given to Council did not require further "conversion." Mr. McLaughlin said the next step would be to determine how much money should be put where, and when. It is because it may take up to two or three years to bring everyone up to at least the minimum proposed by the City’s consultant that Mr. McLaughlin has suggested the temporary establishment of a "shadow pay plan" to allow for the incorporation of new employees into the system.

Mr. White commented that the speed with which everyone is brought up to minimum is also affected by what decision the City makes regarding our targeted level of competitiveness. He went on to say that an examination of the benefits package may affect the determination of how high we set the bar on salary.

Mr. McLaughlin then gave an overview of his recommendations, which include three of Mr. Hendricks’ four and suggest postponing the question of performance evaluation for future implementation. In response to a question from Mr. White, he said although it would be up to Council to consider whether to use salary midpoint in lieu of base salary for determination of COLAs, his recommendation would be to adjust the pay plan annually for cost of living in the traditional fashion, using base salary. There was then discussion of whether a "COLA" should be a flat amount added to everyone’s salary, since actual prices go up the same amount for everyone regardless of salary, or whether a COLA should be implemented in the traditional fashion as an adjustment of the salary by a percentage to maintain the value of the salary in the face of inflation.

Mayor Davis ended the compensation meeting at 10:00 p.m. because of the need to hold another meeting at this time.

Other Business Items

Mayor Davis clarified that Ms. Craze will do a report on a Goddard masterplan presentation that the two of them and Mr. White attended today. One issue involves the buffer area. The question was raised whether Goddard was pressuring its contractors to move onto their campus, and it was said Goddard would look into this.

Mayor David asked if anyone would be able to attend the opening of a new Veterans Affairs Community-Based Outpatient clinic on June 18 at 10 a.m.

The meeting ended at 10:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen Gallagher

City Clerk

City of Greenbelt, Maryland
City Offices, 25 Crescent Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770
Phone: 301-474-8000 FAX: 301-441-8248