Berlin council members agreed this week to include funding for a step and grade system and a cost-of-living adjustment in the upcoming budget.
Berlin Town Hall
File photo
By Charlene Sharpe, Associate Editor
Berlin council members agreed this week to include funding for a step and grade system and a cost-of-living adjustment in the upcoming budget.
During a presentation regarding the projected costs associated with the implementation of the salary changes, council members made it clear that while revenue figures aren’t in yet, they’re hoping to provide staff with a COLA this fiscal year.
“I would prefer a placeholder with a COLA because a COLA is important to me,” Councilman Steve Green said.
Last month, elected officials reviewed plans for the town’s new step and grade system and asked Kelsey Jensen, the town’s human resources director, to look at what it would cost to provide town staff with cost-of-living adjustments. Jenson said at last week’s meeting that the step and grade system was expected to cost $204,000 to implement. She said that implementing that system with a 2% COLA would cost $316,000. The system with a 3% COLA would cost $372,000 and the system with a 4% COLA would be $428,000. Jensen said incorporating one of those figures into budget projections didn’t mean officials had to give staff a COLA.
“It would not tie you to anything,” she said.
Mayor Zack Tyndall said he felt just the cost of the step and grade system should be included in the proposed budget, which will be developed this spring.
“I think the budget should just reflect the step and grade,” Tyndall said. “The 2, 3, or 4 is something I think we’re going to have to work through.”
Green said he’d like to see some sort of COLA included in the proposed fiscal year spending plan. Tyndall pointed out that with the step and grade system, employees were getting moved up a step which would be a 2.5% increase.
“It’s very challenging trying to be fair to everyone but I’m going to bring this group to what we said to our staff last year and what we have said again this year,” Councilman Dean Burrell added. “When the budget development starts, we’re not going to have staff at the end of this process. We’re going to consider our staff first. I think considering our staff first means that we put a number in just like Steve is suggesting to, a number that may be fluid but we have an idea and staff has an idea.”
Tyndall said he didn’t wanted elected officials to talk about a COLA and then in the end not provide it.
“People begin to bank on those things,” he said.
Burrell said if that was the case then officials needed to work harder to ensure the COLA was in fact provided.
“I want this body to be cognizant of, whatever we put there, I really don’t want us to take it away,” Tyndall maintained.
He also questioned where officials would find the revenue to pay for a COLA. Staff said the town was not anticipating a major change in revenues.
Green said that maybe a smaller COLA, such as 2%, could be worked into the budget. Councilman Jack Orris said that if town workers were paying attention to the council’s discussions regarding the pay scale and the COLA, they’d be aware that it wouldn’t be finalized until the budget was actually adopted. He said he’d like to see a 3% COLA with the step and grade system.
“I think I would rather aim high and go down,” he said.
In the end, after further discussion, Tyndall said staff would incorporate the 2% COLA figures into the proposed budget during development. If approved, town employees would receive a 4.5% raise in total – 2.5% from the step and 2% COLA.