Minutes - 11-30-2000 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Chair Carey asked that the County Commissioners indicate what they do not like about the plan and what they want to keep in the plan. He feels that the County needs to do a classification study. Commissioner Brown said that what we did two years ago set the stage. She would like to see the 401 (k} contribution increased. Regarding the classification study, she said that Chapel Hill just did a study and asked if every County must do a study or if we could get information from other counties. Elaine Holmes said that a study would involve having each employee do an updated description of their duties and there would be an evaluation and assessment of the duties, a comparison of the jobs with each other and a comparison of those jobs with the data in the market place. She said that a pay classification plan could be done in one year and addressed in the budget far 2002-03. Commissioner Brown made reference to page G-5 and how an increase in the 401 (k} could be enhanced. She said that looking at the comparison in the information, to increase it to 3°~, which is average, is a huge amount of money. It would be about $400,000 in addition to the $15.00 the County is contributing for each employee for 24 paydays. Commissioner Brown asked how it would affect the lower paid employees if a percentage was chosen for the 401(k). Elaine Holmes said that it would not give an extra benefit to the lower salaried. Commissioner Jacobs agrees that the plan put in place two years ago has worked well. He also agrees with the comments about the 401 (k}. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the question "Are there any new or unachieved objectives the Board wishes to pursue?" and said that this would be the place to build in an active training program for employees to advance themselves. He also mentioned the possibility of subsidizing daycare far the lowest paid employees. Regarding meritorious pay, the employee consortium appreciates what the County Commissioners do but they do not feel that the meritorious service awards were fairly administered. Chair Carey made reference to the meritorious service awards and said that he was also concerned about this. He is not sure the award is accomplishing what the Board intended. Commissioner Jacobs said that it seems that when he reviewed the meritorious service awards given last year, there were some departments that had given it to everyone and some that did not give it to anyone. He feels there may be other ways to allocate meritorious awards. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the pay for performance and if the County's pay system was a pay for performance system. Elaine Holmes said that our pay plan mainly tries to deal with the rate of market factors. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to an article about Chatham County and its pay plan. He would like to have a conversation about taking some of this analysis a step further. He feels we should analyze the functions themselves and the structure of the government. There are ways where we could look at a more holistic approach to building in incentives and giving employees more of a sense of being empowered. He said that a pay and compensation study would fit in with the broader vision. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he has not seen any body of human beings who participated in any kind of meritorious service award program that had total consensus that it was just wonderful. He is personally opposed to this. The amount of money given for meritorious service awards was $100,000 and the money budgeted for 401 (k) was $215,000. He said that if our department heads are not exceptional and if our Manager is not exceptional then they should not be in those positions. He does not think that department heads should be candidates for meritorious service awards. He would rather see this money taken and put into the 401 (k) program. He feels it is significantly subjective and counterproductive. If we are not paying department heads enough, we need to correct it and pay them. He feels we need to expand the 401 (k} plan. He wants to be sure that Orange County is an affirmative action employer and has a plan in place that assists physically and mentally challenged citizens and Spanish speaking citizens in becoming employed in Orange County government.