Brentwood Ways and Means hears compensation study results

Monday at the Brentwood Recreation Center, three members of the Ways and Means committee, aldermen Andy Leahy, Tom Kramer and Maureen Saunders, heard Lynda Higbee of Higbee Associates present the results of a study of the city’s compensation of its employees, comparing it to other area municipalities.

Brentwood officials approved the study at a previous board of aldermen meeting. It was intended to help the officials make educated decisions in budgeting city funds.

Some of  Higbee’s findings on Brentwood employee compensation:

• In 15 job classifications, Brentwood leads the market in compensation
• 6 job classifications are behind the market
• 19 current employees are below the minimum
• Brentwood currently gives both merit and longevity raises. Higbee said longevity raises are on the way out. She said if an employee is at the top of his or her range, Brentwood has continued to give raises to base pay.
• If  an employee’s pay is above the maximum, the recommendation is to make no salary adjustments until the market catches up.
•  Brentwood leads the area in short term disability, long term disability and health and dental care.

How Brentwood stacks up to the market with employee benefits:

• Life insurance—matches the market
• Retirement—equal
• Vacation—equal to better
• Holidays—best
• Catastrophic loan bank—lowest (Brentwood has none)
• Tuition reimbursement—equal

Overall, from an employee perspective, Brentwood is better than minimum.

Brentwood officials have one more interaction with Higbee, on Nov. 17 in an executive session.

Kramer said after the presentation that a compensation study from the Municipal League is “nowhere near as specific” as what they heard in the presentation. “This allows us to have an educated dialog,” he said.

Officials who had voted against having a study done said a St. Louis County Municipal League survey gave them sufficient information.

Kramer said he doesn’t like applying a three percent across the board because it would put the city’s top earners above the scale.

Saunders said she’d like to hold off on the planned 3 percent raise in the 2015 budget until the new data can be considered, but finance director, Gina Jarvis, said that can’t be done because it’s against state law to pay city employees retroactively.

City administrator, Bola Akande said data from the study wouldn’t be applied to the 2015 budget; it would be in the 2016 budget at the soonest. Higbee said the city wouldn’t need to increase the budget to implement the suggested changes.

Leahy, who voted against doing the study, said it didn’t show him anything he didn’t already know.

He declined to comment other than to say he’s interested to see how the five who voted for it will present the information to the full board of aldermen.

“You all think this is valuable and necessary and will help you make a decision. I’d like to hear your thought process what you all want to do with it,” Leahy said.