Highlights from the last city of Danville commission meeting: Compensation and more
Some highlights from the Oct. 26 Danville city commission include:
- Randy Boyd, the city of Danville’s human resources manager, submitted a pay rate scale compensation adjustment analysis, which provides an analysis of full-time staff salaries and how they compare against the pay rate scales. The analysis found 86 city employees’ salaries are below their equivalent pay rate scale. To make Danville’s jobs for the city more competitive in the market and improve recruitment and retention, compensation is under analysis.
The projected annual cost to make the salary adjustments in the analysis is $449,138.14 and includes the largest increases to police and fire departments. Staff recommended for finance to review the analysis to determine if sufficient funds existed to make the changes. Michele Gosser, chief financial officer for the city, said during the meeting that the analysis seems realistic and is an effort to make pay fair and equitable. The commissioners did not take action on compensation adjustment but decided there would be a workshop on a date to be determined to decide how to make recommended compensation changes. - Boyd submitted a proposal to implement longevity incentive for all non-hazardous duty full-time employees, something hazardous duty employees already have. The recommendation is that there be three and five year longevity incentives for the employees and for the establishment of a Longevity Incentive Policy to be added to the city’s existing compensation policy. The projected annual cost of this proposal is $186,000. This is a piece of the aforementioned compensation evaluation. This is also an item currently under discussion and review — no action has yet been taken.
- A second reading of the ordinance to amend the city’s existing classification and compensation plan to reflect reclassification of four administrative assistants from the fire department, police department, public services and utilities administration to executive assistants with a pay grade of 28 was approved unanimously by the commission. According to the existing City of Danville’s compensation/classification plan for 2019-2020, which was retrieved through an open records request, pay grades for non-police and non-fire employees are grades 18 through 35, with pay grade 28 having a minimum salary of $36,953 per year and a maximum salary of $59,125 per year.
- A deed and settlement statement for the purchase of 461 W. Main Street for the new fire station was approved. This is regarding a purchase of a small portion of property adjacent to the western boundary of the location of the new Central Fire Station for the sum of $10,500 from the general fund.Out of seven proposals for a firm to provide design and construction documents and serve as a consultant for the 2020 Main Street Streetscape Project from Gresham Smith, Stand and Associates, Brandsetter Carroll, Element Design, QK4, Integrated Engineering and Vaughn and Melton, the city unanimously approved retaining Gresham Smith to provide design and construction documents and serve as consultant for the project, and a design contract will be up for approval at a future meeting.
- The city previously applied for a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to help with the purchase of bullet proof vests for the police department. The city was awarded a grant in the amount of $2,177.73, which required a match in the same amount. The commission unanimously approved to accept the grant requiring the match.
- A retirement recognition was held at the beginning of the meeting for Jerry Domidion, who retired from the fire department.