For the week of September 17 - 23, 2003

Ketchum to reconsider new salary plan

Gourlay says he wants
‘inequities’ addressed

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By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

The Ketchum City Council on Monday, Sept. 15, voted unanimously to review its Sept. 2 approval of a new nine-step salary plan for all city employees.

The decision came after Councilman Baird Gourlay unexpectedly announced to his colleagues that he believes the panel approved the new plan in haste. "I apologize for voting for it," Gourlay said Monday, noting that he has "struggled" with his Sept. 2 vote and consequently suffered "a lot of sleepless nights."

Noting that he anticipated the announcement would likely be unpopular with the council, Gourlay said he believes the approved nine-step pay plan has several "inequities," chiefly in that it awards substantial salary increases to certain city department heads while providing only small increases to many staffers.

Gourlay told the council he would like the city to conduct a comparison of department-head salaries to those of other Rocky Mountain resort cities, a component that was lacking in a salary-comparison survey commissioned by the city this summer. "If (the department heads) are over-compensated, the public needs to know and I need to know," Gourlay said.

At issue is an August 2003 report commissioned by the city to assess whether typical city staffers receive salaries and benefits similar to those issued by some 20 Western resort cities, such as Aspen, Colo., Park City, Utah, and Jackson, Wyo. The report was compiled by The Local Government Institute, a research and consulting firm located near Seattle.

In the report, the LGI recommended that the city abolish its complex salary structure—which consists of four separate pay plans, each with double-digit job-value grades and potential salary step increases—in favor of a new, more uniform plan that applies to all city departments and employees. The recommended pay structure included raises for 73 city employees, but featured broad disparity in the increases that would be allocated to individual city workers.

Council members on Sept. 2, voted 3-1 to adopt the new nine-step pay plan, with Councilman Randy Hall casting the only vote against the proposal. In voting against the plan, Hall said he believes it too heavily favors higher-ranked city employees at the expense of rank-and-file workers.

Hall noted on Sept. 2—and again on Monday—that approximately $20,000 of the $88,000 that will be spent to bring Ketchum salaries directly in line with those of similar Western resort cities will go to senior city officials.

Gourlay—who on Sept. 2 expressed some reservations about the plan—on Monday said he would like the council to re-examine the approved salary increases proposed with the plan, as well how the plan will interact with the city’s approved 1.5 percent cost-of-living-adjustment for the 2003-2004 fiscal year.

Hall voiced unequivocal support for re-examining the plan.

Mayor Ed Simon, however, cautioned that revisiting an established policy might upset some city employees.

Councilman Maurice Charlat said he is willing to review the plan as a policy, but noted he does not want the council to become too involved in directly managing city affairs.

A survey conducted last week by the Idaho Mountain Express revealed that several of Ketchum’s department heads earn roughly similar salaries to those of Aspen and Telluride, Colo.

Ketchum City Administrator Ron LeBlanc—including a $235 per month raise approved on Sept. 2—earns $122,820 per year, while the administrators of Aspen and Telluride currently earn $109,990 and $116,500 respectively.

Ketchum City Attorney Margaret Simms has an approved salary of $96,864, compared to $110,448 and $109,900 for the attorneys employed by Aspen and Telluride.

Council members will review the pay plan on Oct. 6.

(Express reporter Greg Moore contributed to this report.)

 

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