Salary study shows huge annual increase

Nov. 2—Bringing City of Odessa employees' salaries up to the same level as its peers would cost the city a minimum of $7.5 million to $9.5 million a year and that amount doesn't include an increase in the ancillary costs associated with benefits, nor would it address compression, a human resource analyst told council members Tuesday night.

When it comes to paying for the increases, at least two councils members said they wouldn't be opposed to raising property taxes.

Back in July, the Odessa City Council voted unanimously to hire an outside firm to look at all city employees' pay in comparison with other communities, but asked Evergreen Solutions to place a rush on first responders' pay because Odessa Fire Rescue is losing firefighters at a rapid rate and some attribute it to poor pay.

During Tuesday's city council work session, Evergreen's Michael Misrahi told the council Odessa's public safety employees are paid at least 15% below those in peer cities, but those numbers do not include the add-on pay firefighters are given for certain certifications they acquire as part of their jobs.

While the add-ons probably improve firefighters' standing among their peers, they vary so much from firefighter to firefighter, it's impossible to determine how much exactly, Misrahi said.

Preliminary figures also show some general government employees are being paid as much as 20% below their peers, but on average, the city is paying its general government employees 4-7% below peer cities, Misrahi said.

Misrahi gave the city council members four options on how they can place employees into new salary ranges. A couple of the options would immediately help with recruitment efforts by raising beginning salaries, but they wouldn't address compression, meaning there wouldn't be much of a difference between the salaries of new employees and those who have been with the city longer periods of time.

"Some of (the options) are more baseline in nature. They're laying the framework and others are more full service, so to speak. They'll fix your market issues and solve your compression issue," Misrahi said after the meeting.

Stressing the numbers are only preliminary, if the city were to decide to only address beginning salaries for general government and public safety employees, it could cost the city $7.5 million to $9.5 million, Misrahi said.

To go with one of the options that would address beginning salaries and compression for both sorts of employee groups, it could cost the city $9 million to $12 million, excluding extra costs associated with retirement and other benefits, Misrahi said.

In an email following the meeting, Odessa City Manager Michael Marrero also stressed the numbers are not final.

"Those figures are based on very preliminary general government estimates and depend on a number of assumptions about the direction of Council, so should not be relied on with any degree of comfort," Marrero said.

Whatever option the council chooses, Misrahi said he'd like them to consider dropping some of the add-ons since the city would be raising salaries. Many of the add-ons were created to help recruit and retain firefighters and therefore wouldn't be necessary anymore, he said.

The council members expressed interest in pursuing options that would help address beginning salaries and compression. They directed Misrahi to come back to them with more in-depth figures. Initially, Mayor Javier Joven said he only wanted in-depth figures on the firefighters, but when Councilmember Detra White objected, the decision was made to get figures for all public safety employees.

"My understanding is they have asked us to provide them just some other slices of how to look at the data where they can see a department level impact and a rank or classification level impact," Misrahi said after the meeting. "They would like to see more granular details is probably the best way to put it so that's what we'll be working on next."

The council also got into a short discussion about how to pay for salary increases and if they should be across the board.

Councilmember Mari Willis told the council she's receiving calls from general government employees who are wondering if they'll be getting raises, too.

"I don't want the council to be sitting in a position where we are the people who created a morale problem because we've pitted this group against that group," Willis said.

Matta said the issue with the firefighters could have been taken care of six months ago. He pointed out police officers received a raise a few years ago and no large study was required.

"This time that completely changed and instead of just addressing the problem that was at hand, we added everything else," Matta said.

Councilmember Tom Sprawls said the only way he can see the city paying for the raises is to increase property taxes because the city simply can't rely upon sales taxes.

Thompson agreed.

"We've got to figure out how to pay for it, which is going to be a big problem, it's not just a one-time shot. It's an ongoing situation. So how high are you willing to take taxes?" Thompson asked.

Matta said he thinks residents would be OK with a tax increase and councilmember Denise Swanner agreed, saying they will "if they want somebody to save their mom's life or run into a fire...I'm on council. I run away from a fire, these guys run into a fire. These guys run into a shooting, not away from a shooting so all employees are not equal. I want them to be, but they are not equal."

Matta also told Sprawls he's assuming the city council can't make adjustments to the budget.

"There's definitely ways you can cut the budget down so we don't have to impose a higher tax," Matta said.

Joven cut the discussion about property taxes short, stating he needs further information.

"This basically started with a real simple solution and like government always does, it muddies the water as much as it can," Joven said. "So this is not about choosing sides, pitting people against each other, but there are some real questions here when we're looking at this monster. Now we're addressing everything. We're addressing from one department and one spectrum to the other. I definitely want to be able to see what we're looking at as far as the department where we're losing the most."

Joven pointed out cities are privatizing various departments, but cities cannot privatize its public safety departments.

In other matters, the city heard from KDC Associates, a Midland company that is being considered to design and oversee a downtown improvement project.

Kelly Cook, a partner with the firm, and Casey Hallmark, Downtown Odessa executive director, told the council KDC looked at downtown to see where an entertainment district could be located and where the city could get the biggest impact for the $7 million it issued in certificates of obligation three years ago.

Cook provided the council with artist renderings of Jackson Avenue, but noted no location has been set in stone. They're suggesting Jackson Avenue because the project could take six months to two years and fewer businesses would be disrupted, there would be immediate changes taxpayers could see, it would link to public-private partnership projects that are already finished and there'd be fewer interactions between pedestrians and vehicles.

Cook and Hallmark said prior to the start of the project, KDC would engage businesses, members of the public and the city council in discussions about the entertainment district's features.

Joven expressed frustration, noting engineering consultant Kimley Horn has already had multiple town hall discussions about downtown and written two downtown master plans. He also complained that $7 million isn't going to go as far as it did three years ago and KDC would be taking a big chunk out of it, too.

Hallmark noted KDC originally asked for $900,000, but a committee scaled back on what it was asking of KDC to just the "meat and potatoes." She also said KDC will make sure that what's built will fall within the city's budget and create a district that can be added on to as money becomes available.

As for town halls, Hallmark and Cook said they plan to include downtown business owners, not the entire community.

Hallmark and Craig Stoker, also from Downtown Odessa, told Joven the Kimley Horn downtown master plan was an "over-arching" plan and the KDC project is just an aspect of it. They also pointed out that even if parts of KDC's vision are set aside for awhile, the engineering portion of their work will be done and ready for when the funding is available.

The council agreed to put KDC's contract on Tuesday's agenda.