At a work session Tuesday, McComb city administrator Quordiniah Lockley went over the city’s pay scale with selectmen to explain how it works and why it’s in place. However, city department heads said the process remains incomplete after two years, with many employees still stuck with the same salary, mired by a lack of an employee evaluation system.
The pay scale is a map that tells city officials how much the entry-level salary is for any position and how much that salary should increase in case of promotions or raises.
Selectmen voted nearly two years ago to implement the system, which took effect Oct. 1, 2012.
“When it comes to a pay scale, it works,” Lockley said. “However, it becomes stagnated when there are no raises. If people come in one year at step one, and they stay there for five years, someone can come in brand new tomorrow and make the exact same amount because there have been no raises.”
When the scale was implemented in 2012, personnel costs increased by about $351,000 to maneuver the employees into their appropriate pay scale slots. Since then, most employees have stayed at the same level of pay, though some have received promotions from department heads.
The discussion about pay scales comes as the board has been debating a 3 percent cost-of-living raise since December. Selectman Melvin Joe Johnson is pushing for raises as soon as possible, while Mayor Whitney Rawlings has repeatedly said that any raises should be budgeted for the 2014-15 fiscal year and take effect Oct. 1, 2014.
When former Mayor Zach Patterson gave raises in 2007, he gave different amounts to specific employees, and Lockley said there were not many records on the specifics of those raises. Because of that, city officials are not sure how much those raises cost.
After Selectman Michael Cameron asked to hear from the department heads Tuesday, some spoke against the current pay scale process, saying many employees still have been at the same pay level for years.
McComb Fire Chief Stephen Adams said he has lost 12 employees in the past year, mostly to oilfield jobs that can offer double or triple the salary. While Lockley said that the firefighters’ salaries, which starts at $26,410, is comparable with other cities of similar size, it is tough to compete with six-figure salaries other industries offer.
“This has been going on for months,” Adams said. “I expect a lot out of these guys — I expect them trained like professionals and to perform like professionals. I’m just asking that we pay them as professionals. I understand I can’t compete with oilfield jobs. My intention is to keep them from looking to start with. I want them to be happy here, trained here, stay here — that’s my goal.”
Selectwoman Tammy Witherspoon said if the city gave raises more consistently, then employees would stay longer.
Adams said it costs about $2,000 to train a replacement firefighter for his staff, and he would like to have a system in which the more trained an employee is, the more money that employee makes.
Lockley said the point of the pay scale setup is for department heads to give annual employee evaluations to determine who moves up a step and who does not. The goal for employees who don’t get a raise is to work with the department head to come up with a plan to improve the quality of work over the next year to earn a raise.
However, Lockley is working with the department heads now to come up with an objective evaluation process.
Recreation director Joseph Parker is in favor of giving his employees raises, but if the city can only sustain the raises for a few years, the pay scale can only work for so long.
“The question is, how do you sustain it moving forward?” Parker asked. “I think that’s a big piece of the pie you have to look at. We can all present you with scales of what we would like to have, but if year after year, you can or cannot afford to do it, it’s going to get back out of whack again.
“Unless you can come up with something that helps you think about this long-term, you’ll have to do this again next year.”
