City Council Minutes 2016 10 04 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes October 4, 2016 Page 7 of 10 update. Mayor Pro Tem Lipton feels the sign code update is a higher priority than work on the codes. Councilmember Loo agreed. Councilmember Stolzmann asked if fees are set correctly for development review. City Manager Fleming stated this is a work-in progress and he hopes the new software will help determine the costs better and will be able to adjust revenues and costs accordingly. Economic Prosperity Councilmember Leh asked why personnel costs in this Program increased in 2016. Director Hix stated it included both a market increase and a merit increase for the staff. Utilities City Manager Fleming stated the Water Committee has reviewed this information. Councilmember Keany stated the Committee supports this proposal. Mayor Pro Tem Lipton noted there is no suggested increase in water rates and small increases for trash and stormwater rates. Councilmember Loo asked why there is a decline in employees in this program. Director Kowar stated this was a reallocation, moving costs from Utilities to Streets to reflect actual costs. Administration and Support Services City Manager Fleming stated this program covers administration costs where they cannot be attributed to specific subprograms such as utilities, snow removal, etc. City Manager Fleming stated priorities for Administration include merit increases, market adjustments and position audits. He stated the proposal includes merit increases ranging from 1% — 5% based on performance, with a 4% average. At the last meeting, Council asked what other communities are doing for increases. City Manager Fleming stated of the nine other jurisdictions we compare to, they average 3.4% for merit increases. For market adjustments, the Human Resources staff does an annual comparison of compensation for each position with the other jurisdictions so that we are no more than 4% from the average pay scale for that position. Councilmember Leh asked what is the range for market adjustments. Director Hix stated some positions are recommended for a two grade adjustment and some are one grade, and some are none. There were more positions recommended for increase this year as employment is down and wages are up which affects the adjustments. Councilmember Leh asked what the aggregate cost of market adjustments is. Staff will provide this to Council at a future meeting.