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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - Council Compensation Commission - Meeting Date: 7/8/2019 c Glendale N MINUTES COUNCIL COMPENSATION COMMISSION COUNCIL CONFERENCE ROOM 5850 W. GLENDALE AVE. GLENDALE, ARIZONA 85301 JULY 8, 2019 4:00 P.M. 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair McCarthy called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Present: Diane McCarthy, Chair John Crow, Commissioner Vern Crow, Commissioner Jack Rose, Commissioner Tom Traw, Commissioner Also Present: Jim Gruber, Deputy City Attorney Julie K. Bower, City Clerk 3. CITIZEN COMMENTS Gary Livingston, Sahuaro District, expressed concerns regarding Council actions and compensation. 4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES 1 . APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE JUNE 27, 2019 COUNCIL COMPENSATION COMMISSION MEETING A motion was made by Commissioner Jack Rose, seconded by Commissioner Tom Traw to approve the minutes of the June 27, 2019 Council Compensation Commission meeting. AYE: Chair Diane McCarthy Commissioner John Crow Commissioner Vern Crow Commissioner Jack Rose Commissioner Tom Traw 5. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION 1 . REVIEW COUNCIL COMPENSATION AND POSSIBLE ADOPTION OF COMPENSATION REVIEW REPORT Chair McCarthy said time was of the essence to make a recommendation so that a question could be referred to the November 2019 ballot. Commissioner Rose had used the information provided by staff to create rankings for Mayor and Council compared to the peer cities. He said the City of Gilbert referenced Article IV, Part 2, Section 17 of the Arizona Constitution regarding an increase or decrease in salary. He asked if it would apply to the City. Mr. Gruber was not familiar with the specific section. He would have to research it and provide information at a future meeting. He thought it would apply specifically to the Arizona Legislature. The City's charter provided latitude for the City to create its own provisions for salary increases and decreases. Commissioner Rose proposed the following resolution for discussion: Effective January 1st, 2020 the annual salary for Mayor is $53,000 and $41,000 for Council members. Thereafter, the annual salary shall be adjusted by a cost-of-living adjustment based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) change as published by the US Department of Labor for all urban consumers for the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale average for all items and recommended to Council for review and action by the City of Glendale Human Resources Department. The following conditions shall apply: • The recommended CPI-U increase shall be no greater than 5.1% in one calendar year. •A cost-of-living (CPI-U) increase will only be recommended or applied if one is provided to Glendale City employees during same fiscal year. •The adjustment of a CPI-U increase does not result in a salary for Mayor or Council that is greater than less than one percent (-1%) of the median salary for all Glendale City employees. •All other proposals for an increase or decrease in Mayor and/or Council salaries, (non-CPI-U adjustments), shall be reviewed by the Commission on Salaries, reviewed by Council and referred to all qualified voters. Commissioner Rose wanted to find a process that would review the salaries on an annual basis. He referenced the City of Peoria which allowed an increase of up to 5.1% before it required a vote of the qualified electors. The City of Mesa's process was that the annual salaries of its Mayor and Council were tied to cost-of-living adjustments provided to City of Mesa employees. Commissioner Rose said the Commission had also discussed maintaining the salaries of Mayor and Council within 1% of the median income of City employees. Commissioner V. Crow confirmed that a change in how salary was calculated would require the City Charter to be changed. Mr. Gruber said any change would require voter action. Chair McCarthy said the Commission had discussed a two-election approach. The first election would change the salary amounts and the second would amend the Charter with a formula or process for the annual review of salaries. Commissioner J. Crow said the Commission could propose a method for the annual review and calculation of salaries that would require only one election. Commissioner V. Crow said the Commission could recommend a formula that would be used going forward and would not require a vote to change the salaries each time. The formula could be tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the average or median salaries for City employees. Mr. Gruber said a public vote would be required. If the recommendation was to only change the salary amounts, the public would vote on the amounts but would not change the process currently outlined in the Charter. That type of vote would not technically change the Charter. If the Commission recommended a new process for addressing salaries, it would be a Charter change. Commissioner Rose suggested that it be a two-part process. The Commission would come up with a salary amount for Mayor and for Council. The figures he suggested were $53,000 for the Mayor and $41,000 for Council. Thereafter, the salaries would be calculated by tying it to the CPI or the median City employee salaries. It could be handled with two questions or two elections. Chair McCarthy confirmed that the first election would have the dollar amount and the second election would change the Charter. Commissioner J. Crow recommended that the Commission focus on the process and sanity-check it with what the amounts would be. If the Commission focused on the process, it would avoid the 13-year time frame between salary reviews. Commissioner Traw confirmed that the Commission would make a recommendation to Council, but it was up to Council to accept the recommendation. Commissioner V. Crow said that was correct. If Council accepted the recommendation, it would then go to a public vote. Chair McCarthy said that was the reason for the time crunch. Mayor and Council wanted the vote to take place in November. Commissioner J. Crow wanted the record to be clear that the Commission was under no pressure to meet arbitrary deadlines. It was his understanding that if the Commission wanted the question to go in November, there were certain deadlines to meet but there was no pressure to hit the deadline. Chair McCarthy had been told that for the November ballot there was a July deadline to come up with the ballot language. Commissioner J. Crow said that was correct, but the Commission was not being pressured to meet that arbitrary deadline. Commissioner Rose said the salary amounts he proposed in his resolution represented a 30% spread between the Mayor's salary and Council's salary. The current spread was 41%. He used the CPI and compounded each year to arrive at those amounts. It only made a small change in the rankings for Council and he had suggested a cap of 5.1%. The other question was when did the increase go into effect. The research seemed to indicate that it would be at the beginning of a term. Mayor and Council were on staggered terms so that would make it complicated. Commissioner Rose said the median salary of City employees was also an option by making it no greater nor less than 1%. Commissioner V. Crow had ranked the salaries of Glendale and the peer cities. The Council's salary ranked third overall and in district ranking. The district average was $37,023 and the overall average was $28,303. The at large average was $21,037. Commissioner V. Crow said the Commission wanted to keep it simple, so he suggested tying the salary within 1% (+ or -) of either the average or median salaries for City employee. The median salary was $53,217 and the average was $70,446. Commissioner V. Crow suggested the following formula: Median City employee salary ($53,217) less 1% = Council salary + 30% = Mayor Council $52,685 (Result: 55% increase) Mayor: $68,490 (Result: 42% increase) Commissioner J. Crow asked what the median household income was for Glendale. Ms. Bower said it was $57,613. Chair McCarthy felt strongly that Glendale numbers should be used. No other city was the same as Glendale. Commissioner J. Crow said the City's operation was more complicated because of such things as the stadium and Luke Air Force Base. He noted the median employee income, median household income and the CPI calculation were all very similar. Commissioner Rose asked if it would be calculated annually. Commissioner J. Crow suggested that the language included that the Council salary shall not exceed or be less than 1% of the median salary for City employees. There was discussion among Commission members regarding the different formulas. Mr. Gruber said the Charter required the Commission to adopt a report to transmit to Council. He suggested a motion indicating what information be included in the report. Commissioner J. Crow recommended including all of the documents that were provided and reviewed by the Commission. He had also consulted with members of the Peoria Citizens Commission on Salaries. Commissioner Rose had provided a draft report and suggested it be used as the basis for the report. A motion was made by Commissioner John Crow, seconded by Commissioner Tom Traw to adopt the documents reviewed by the Commission and include them in the report to Council. AYE: Chair Diane McCarthy Commissioner John Crow Commissioner Vern Crow Commissioner Jack Rose Commissioner Tom Traw Chair McCarthy would work with staff to draft the report. 2. POSSIBLE COUNCIL COMPENSATION RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL Commissioner V. Crow proposed the following recommendation to amend Article II, Section 8 of the City Charter to read: Effective January 1, 2020, the annual salary for council members will be one-percent (1%) less than the median annual salary of City of Glendale employees. The mayor's salary shall be thirty-percent (30%) greater than the Council members' annual salary. The city manager or a designee will review the salary of the mayor and council members on an annual basis to ensure compliance with the formula. Commissioner V. Crow confirmed that the Commission was in agreement with the 30% figure for the Mayor's salary. Commissioner J. Crow asked what was the justification for the percentage. Commissioner Rose said the current deviation was 41%. The Commission had previously discussed a 30% deviation. He had not calculated the deviation between mayors and councils for the peer cities but there was a deviation. Commissioner J. Crow asked if the additional workload for the Mayor was 30% or 41% greater than that of Council. Commissioner V. Crow said the workload was probably close to the same. Commissioner J. Crow said Councilmembers were responsible for his or her district. The Mayor served all six districts. Commissioner Rose said 30% was a reasonable amount. There was consensus for the 30% deviation. Mr. Gruber reviewed the language and clarified the intent of the proposed recommendation. The Commission discussed the intent of the 1%. Commissioner V. Crow restated his proposed language: Effective January 1, 2020, the annual salary for council members will be one-percent (1%) less than the median annual salary of City of Glendale employees. The mayor's salary shall be thirty-percent (30%) greater than the Council members' annual salary. The city manager or a designee will review the salary of the mayor and council members on an annual basis to ensure compliance with the formula. Commissioner V. Crow said the intent was to change the salary language for the Council and Mayor currently in the City Charter. A motion was made by Commissioner Vern Crow, seconded by Commissioner Jack Rose to recommend that the language in Article II, Section 8 of the Glendale City Charter be amended to read as follows: Effective January 1, 2020, the annual salary for council members will be one-percent (1%) less than the median annual salary of City of Glendale employees. The mayor's salary shall be thirty-percent (30%) greater than the council members' annual salary. The city manager or a designee will review the salary of the mayor and council members on an annual basis to ensure compliance with the formula. AYE: Chair Diane McCarthy Commissioner John Crow Commissioner Vern Crow Commissioner Jack Rose Commissioner Tom Traw 6. OTHER BUSINESS None 7. STAFF REPORT None 8. COMMISSION COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS None 9. NEXT MEETING TO BE DETERMINED 10. ADJOURNMENT Chair McCarthy adjourned the meeting at 5:39 p.m. I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the meeting of the Council Compensaton Commission of Glendale, Arizona, held on the 8th day of July, 2019. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this 30th day of July, 2019. � ii 40 K. Bower, MMC Glendale City Clerk