Council discusses staff wages, salaries

At a Monticello City Council work session on March 9, City Administrator Russ Farnum said that with salary adjustments made in the last couple of years, the city is now competitive pay wise when compared to similar Iowa cities. 

One of the few positions Farnum highlighted was Madonna Staner’s administrative assistant position with the police department.

“Madonna’s position is a little underpaid, and I think Britt would like to get her a little extra bump this year. I think that’s well warranted,” Farnum said. “Our library positions, even with a (7% raise) this year, are still a little under where they should be. So, we might want to look at that continuing into the future.”

Farnum noted that for most of the hourly city staff, last time wages were discussed, officials put in place did a three-year pay plan.

“I would like to move into another three-year pay plan,” added Farnum. “I think it provides a lot of stability for their positions. The library board sets library wages and salaries each year, so I don’t think it would make sense to include the library in that three-year pay plan. I’m not saying we don’t go talk to them as ask for it, but I think we let them do their job and bring it to the council.”

Farnum also noted Milo Breitbach’s youth programs and faciities coordinator position in the parks and recreation department could be higher.

“Milo’s job, in parks and recreation, that’s a little bit underpaid in relation to where he should be, and that’s something we can bring up over the next couple of years as well.”

Farnum said that in the previous three-year pay increase plan, the big adjustment was in the first year and ranged from 3.5% to 18% for some employees. After that, Farnum said the second year was a 5% increase on top of that. The third year was 4.75% pay increase across the board.

“I’m not suggesting we do anything close to that level of adjustments again, but I think in a lot of contracts you’ll see 3% in year one, 3% in year two and 5% year three, something along those lines,” Farnum added. “I do think we are a little bit lower on the cost-of-living adjustment right now, and my gut feeling says that we could do 3.3 or 5% the first year, 3% the second and maybe or 4 or 5% the third year. It’s hard to have a crystal ball on what cost of living is going to be.”

“Using your numbers, this is my personal opinion, I would rather go 3.75% across the board, that’s kind of a rough average,” Council Member Scott Brighton said. “Looking at the wages, I don’t think we’re out of line. I think we’ve caught most of them up, except for the library.”

“I like that, because then they kind of know where they are at,” Council member Candy Langerman said.

Coleman sparks longevity-pay discussion

Jamie Coleman, a Paramedic on the Monticello Ambulance staff, generated a discussion at the council work session regarding longevity pay for the ambulance department.

“I don’t know if this is the right time to mention it, but since you guys are talking about pay, I figured I’d mention it,” Coleman said. “I’m fairly new to Monticello, going on year three, but looking at the other pay scales for the city that were posted, it looked like the ambulance was the only one without longevity pay. Not sure if you guys are aware of that or not, but my personal feeling on that is if I’m getting paid the same as a brand-new paramedic, or if a 10-year paramedic is getting paid the same as me, what’s (encouraging that senior member to stay on staff)?”

Ambulance Director Lori Lynch mentioned other local ambulance organizations offer longevity pay, and Coleman added that the Anamosa department offers longevity pay as well.

Farnum said that he thought the council reviewed the longevity pay three years, making it the same across the board.

Coleman and Reggie Welter, who is also on the ambulance staff, mentioned that non-certified paramedics earn the same as certified paramedics.

The council said it was unaware of the longevity pay status and along with Mayor Jake Ellwood, noted that they would take a look at it.