The Overcompensation Study

[XLFD]

Wonder where all of your tax money is going in Ludington?  Let's follow the bouncing ball behind the ever-expanding costs of an employee compensation study which was thought up by one city standing committee, and passed along to another committee where they considered what they were looking for and two proposals:

At the May 17 Personnel Committee they advised updating job descriptions, but the cost was a bit more than the estimated $10,000, because it turned out that it was actually $700 per job description plus $150 per, as noted in the May 21 council packet:

And that additional fee was recommended by City Manager Shay and passed at that night's meeting:

Thus updating the job descriptions would cost the city over $5000 ($12,750 - $7700) plus travel expenses.  Those travel expenses must be significant because when we look at the bills from three council meetings where payment to this company is made we get:

$6641 + $2000 + $6219 = $14,860.  So one would think that since this was contractual work, that the travel fees of Mark Nottley to come up from Brighton, MI was over $2100, which seems rather steep for a 200 mile drive that he seems to have done twice (On July 31 and October 20).  If he's paid statutory mileage rate of $0.535 per mile, each trip up and back would get him around $210 each time.  

At the May Personnel meeting, which I attended, it was discussed and agreed upon that Nottley's visits would be to committee meetings held at times that would make it unnecessary to stay overnight in Ludington.  So are we to believe that he made ten trips to Ludington?  But it gets even worse when we look at the recent Personnel meeting:

So instead of $14,860 being the cost of the compensation study, it's $17,000-- or roughly ten more round trips between Brighton and Ludington.  And if you look at the October 22 committee notes and the full 11-3-18 meeting, you see the additional costs to the taxpayers, thanks to this consultant who was looked to in order to try and boost salaries up (definitely not down, check the notes). 

In two months or so, Steve Brock will find the $17K to pay for the study, find $37,000 to adjust upward administrator salaries, and $20,000 extra to make the next city manager happier.  This doesn't contain the projected 2% increase you'll find in these notes for all salaried employees studied:  "An increase about the typical 2% will show momentum and the Compensation Study will not be something that just sits on the shelf."

Meanwhile, your sewer rates double in a matter of years, your water rates increase almost as much, to pay for more than $30 million of infrastructure maintenance debt, the unfunded pensions of city officials continue to hover at $10 million, and the fringe benefits paid out to our officials approach 90% of their salary.  Can Steve find us citizens the money to pay for these unjustified-to-the-public pay increases?  

[Freedom Seeker]

Thanks for that study, X. It"s unreal that city employees think they need higher salaries, bonuses, and greater compensation to do their jobs. That's excessive and ever-changing cost of consulting from Mark Nottley which could have paid some bonuses if really deserved. You would think at a time when the city is facing $30 million infrastructure debt for the next 40 years that a good manager would be counting pennies. What other jobs around Ludington pay such high benefits? It seems some people in city hall are living a Mercedes dream on the backs of the Ludington public who mostly struggle to drive a used Chevrolet or Ford.