This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Salt Lake County Council is poised Tuesday to decide whether to adopt Mayor Ben McAdams' revised employee- compensation plan.
Settling in on plan details is crucial to the whole process of crafting a $1.1 billion budget for 2016 because roughly 60 percent of the county's expenditures involve the pay and benefits taken home by nearly 3,700 employees.
It's a balancing act every year, but County Council members are approaching the task with sharpened sensitivity this go-round because they know that many employees — and independently elected county officials, from the sheriff to the surveyor — were caught off-guard by McAdams' original proposal to give a 2.5 percent pay increase but cut the county's 3 percent contribution to employees' 401(k) retirement plans.
His idea was to begin revamping a compensation structure that a consultant's study found to be light on wages and heavy on benefits. The combination made it hard for the county to compete with the private sector for some positions and also left some employees with unfair pay ceilings. The study by the Hay Group also found that employees desired a system based on performance pay. But a rebellion began soon after McAdams announced his plan to implement that approach by eliminating the 401(k) contribution. The unrest triggered a series of meetings among the mayor, his human resources staff, and large throngs of employees and small groups of independently elected officials.
A week after introducing the concept, the mayor revised his plan. The pay raise went up to 3 percent. The 401(k) contribution still will be cut, but only to 1.5 percent this year. It will be eliminated the following year, McAdams said.
The amended plan is more acceptable for dealing with this year's budget, according to the independently elected officials who lined up last week to politely, but with unanimity, tell the County Council of their displeasure with not knowing of McAdams' revamped pay proposal until his budget speech.
"So you found out when the public did?" asked Republican County Councilman Michael Jensen.
"Yes," responded Republican Wayne Cushing, the mild-mannered treasurer who took the lead in telling the council how disturbing it was to have so little input in the decision.
"We understand the complexity of the budget process and trying to get everyone on one page," Cushing said. "But when there is such a [big] change, maybe it would be good if the elected officials were part of that process before it went to the public and the County Council."
Deputy County Mayor Lori Bays said that since compensation issues and the recommendations of the Hay Group were discussed multiple times at council meetings, "we thought there was a clear understanding of the next steps. But there weren't. We really need to have everyone understand the ramifications."
Some of those misunderstandings were worked out in a meeting between the mayor's staff and the independently elected officials, who now back the revised pay plan with reservations.
Sheriff Jim Winder — who loudly criticized the mayor, a fellow Democrat, and his plan at the first employee meeting — was more reserved at the council session, acknowledging "HR was trying to implement complex policies and procedures with fiscal implications. It caught us a little flat-footed." But now, "I've indicated support and will continue."
Another top county Democrat, District Attorney Sim Gill, who shared Winder's early concerns, said "the initial shock has gone off" with the mayor's revised version, which "is better than the previous plan."
But the overall compensation question needs much more deliberation, he said, contending the plan ultimately must be a "blueprint for our employees to trust us. When I have a 27-year employee come to me and say he … remained a county employee based on [retirement] promises to him, we have to acknowledge and value that. It's not an academic exercise but a bread-and-butter issue for employees. They want a fair process."
From what she's seen, longtime County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said, the compensation study hasn't been fair to her workers at all.
"I was crushed" by the consultant's suggested changes to her office's pay structure, the Democratic officeholder said. "I had really hoped they would recognize how important these clerical positions were — positions that are often held by women — and it turned out to be the opposite."
Pay reductions were recommended for all but three of 31 positions in her department, Swensen said, and those three were the highest-paid positions already. "I thought something is seriously wrong," Swensen said.
The mayor's revised pay plan probably had the votes it needed for approval last week, but the County Council put off the decision because GOP Councilman Steve DeBry, a Unified Police Department executive, was absent for work reasons.
In the end, McAdams pledged to involve the independently elected officials more in the future, "finding middle ground that respects the taxpayers and helps us to retain and attract the employees we want."