ORDER-2021-43 : An Appropriation from free cash, account 01-324001, in the amount of $50,000 to HR Professional Services, account 011522-529000, to fund a compensation and classification study.

Transcript (~42 min @ 46:30)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 46:43 Speaker 2: yes yes yes yes yes yes yes the motion

▶ 47:02 Jeff McNaught: passes next up we have order 2021-43 an appropriation from free cash account zero one dash three two four zero zero one in the amount of fifty thousand dollars to hr professional services account zero one one five two two dash five two nine zero zero zero to fund a compensation and

▶ 47:30 Speaker 7: classification study thank you mr. mr. chairman I'm gonna I'm gonna take the lead for a minute here and I want to thank you and the members of the committee for your consideration of this of this important initiative on behalf of the administration so I believe this was in committee in early January and there were a number of questions about around timing around scope around really the underlying purpose for it and so um you know we've had some internal conversations i know mrs lata has reached out to virtually every member of the city council on an individual basis in an effort to address any particular questions that members may have but i just want to start out with a couple of general points and then you know we can take the conversation from there One of the critical priorities of the Broder administration is that every decision it makes be as much as possible based in data and objective criteria. And that goes for decisions about compensation as much as it goes for decisions about how to spend free cash, how to do road work, how to make improvements to the community, how fund the school system how to invest in our capital projects everything that we as a city government are confronted with if at all possible would we would want to use data to make those decisions and so this is one of those items that in the spirit of Mayor Broda's priority of being more data-driven you know is necessary and what we know from the compensation study and it was discussed during the last hearing on January 11th is that our current compensation structure is out of date by, I would argue, two generations, almost 40 years. And so it has never been comprehensively reviewed or looked at during that entire period of time. And it's long overdue at this point. And one of the reasons why we would want to do that is obviously to create a more modern data-driven compensation structure. And I know one of the questions is, well, if the study comes back and shows that, I'll pick on Mr. De La Russo, but shows that Mr. De La Russo is underpaid, and I'll vote for the fact that given what he does for this community, he probably is underpaid, quite frankly. but if it comes back and says Mr. Del Russo is underpaid, that does not mean Mr. Del Russo is going to get a pay raise. That simply means that we have, for the first time in 33 years, been able to generate a blueprint to allow the mayor, whether it be this mayor or the next mayor and the city council, to make data-driven objective decisions about compensation adjustments, about position adjustments, and kind of broadly speaking about the organizational needs of the city of Melrose as an employer and as an operating entity. And so I just wanted to highlight the fact that the overriding priority here is that this study be done not to generate pay raises or try to determine who's overpaid and who's underpaid, but really is about having a system in place that gives Mrs. Lata, Mr. De La Russo, Mayor Broder, and the rest of the senior leadership team at City Hall the ability to make decisions about compensation and about organizational structure based on data rather than how it's currently done, which is somewhat of a, frankly, a haphazard way. So I just wanted to offer that by way of intro. and Mrs. Lotta has put together a PowerPoint in advance of this hearing tonight. And I know she or Ms. Foote did send it along to the members of the council this afternoon. And so I'm not sure if the members of the committee, it's up to you. Do you want Mrs. Lotta to go through that PowerPoint or would you rather open up to questions at this point? And I suspect most of your questions are probably going to touch on a lot of the stuff that's already contained in that PowerPoint. So we're here to answer your questions, but we're here at your pleasure,

▶ 52:04 Jeff McNaught: so whatever your will is. And I think maybe a quicker way of figuring that out is, can anyone raise their hand that wants the presentation read? Okay, so we do have some

▶ 52:16 Jeff McNaught: members that would like the presentation addressed. I don't know that you need to read it line by line, but Ms. Latta, if you could speak to it, that would be great. Thank you.

▶ 52:29 Speaker 2: I'm going to hand the presenter ball to you, Ms. Pacheco.

▶ 52:38 Speaker 2: You have four minutes.

▶ 52:47 Speaker 2: So I can share it? Yeah.

▶ 53:26 Speaker 3: Do you see the controls at the top, share screen?

▶ 53:31 Speaker 2: Okay. For some reason, it's not allowing me to share it.

▶ 53:41 Speaker 3: Let me try one.

▶ 53:52 Speaker 2: Well, we're having technical difficulties with the sharing screen. But you all have the presentation. I can share. Can you share it, Kristin? Thank you. Hold on, please.

▶ 54:24 Speaker 3: Let me know how big this is.

▶ 54:33 Speaker 2: No. No, no.

▶ 54:43 Speaker 2: Just take a second. Okay. Okay. Can you see it?

▶ 54:56 Speaker 2: Yeah. I assume you have to go to the next slide and assist me with that. Okay, great. Okay. so uh thank you for all of you for speaking with me um over the past week and offering your questions and concerns and your thoughts about the study so the reason for me to compile this presentation was just to offer inside a better visual for for all of you to to have the questions answered so i've already shared a lot of it with you i'm going to go fast through some of the slides essentially we are requesting for comprehensive classification and compensation study for non-65 million position and we're looking to hire an independent consultant to perform this study in this way we're investing in our infrastructure in a modernized infrastructure investing in our career workforce and this is all the staff with specific areas of expertise licenses advanced degrees these are individual contributors as well as the leaders of the city or the department heads um last study conducted over 30 years ago next yeah so the reason we

▶ 56:24 Speaker 2: are looking to do this study is again the classification and compensation system has not been reviewed since the 80s there has been significant changes that took place since then we have new departments departments have immersed and developed new positions new laws new technologies new technology um our compensation system for non-union employees have been static for 10 years now while the union compensation every three years we're able to negotiate and updated. The non-union system has been static. It's become pretty complicated as new salary schedules are created. So we have over 100 salary schedules for 65 positions, and they're not defined to data to an objective criteria. As Rob mentioned earlier, pay decisions are not data driven and in today's environment we're looking for transparency we're looking to rely on data um and that's why we're looking to have um to get funding for this study um and finally we want to be competitive in the marketplace so we want internal equity but we also want to be competitive uh out there in the marketplace with all the other municipalities for trying to recruit and maintain quality talent next the goals of the study i i mentioned that

▶ 58:00 Speaker 2: with you we want to look at all of our job description evaluate them analyze them and have the consultant help us develop descriptions that uniformly reflect the minimum qualification the essential job functions and that will ultimately provide us the basis for developing standards of work performance, which is tied to performance evaluation, performance management, and that's a focus for me for this upcoming year, as well as Mayor Broder. We're looking to establish a standardized and equitable classification system that will allow for meaningful career progression. It will allow for, as I said, internal equity where wages are fair and competitive and we're ensuring that compensation is adequate and consistent with the duties that are performed it will reduce the subjectivity in our pay decisions

▶ 59:09 Speaker 2: as i mentioned earlier such the goals of this study would also be to provide transparent and objective standards for recruiting and selection It will allow us to retain high-quality managers and staff and create an adaptable compensation system where groups of positions that are performing similar work are classified in the same grade. So that will make it much simpler to implement and modernize. Next.

▶ 59:49 Speaker 2: And to ensure that we consistently are compliant with federal and state laws, the FLSA, Americans with Disabilities Act, Mass Pay Equity Act, gender equity, and equal employment opportunity.

▶ 1:00:08 Speaker 3: Next.

▶ 1:00:10 Speaker 2: Now, what the project will not do is evaluate individual performance. It is focused on the positions. It will not reorganize departments or eliminate positions, and it will not result in immediate compensation adjustment for position within this study.

▶ 1:00:33 Speaker 2: The benefits of having such study done is, again, provides a modern blueprint and a data-driven approach. It will make us, help us make fair and equitable pay decisions, evaluations, result in meaningful promotions it will establish the city as progressive and competitive employer for recruiting and retaining talented and diverse workforce and ensure compliance consistent

▶ 1:01:08 Speaker 2: compliance with federal and state laws next during my conversations with many of the city council members the question was raised why now why can we wait a little bit longer the reason that we're doing it now is actually um it was on the agenda last year due to the pandemic and the loss of state aid it was postponed it's been 33 years so i we all believe it is time to do it um additionally the the social and political landscape that we're all living in it is forcing employers to ensure that our hiring and paid practices are transparent equitable inclusive that they're built on uniform and solid foundation and that study will allow us to do that along with the di audit this initiative will help support the priorities that mayor broader has and that i have established for for the city of Melrose. Next. The funding source is another question that I did receive during my conversations with the city councilors. Free cash, why free cash? Well, Mr. De La Russo shared that this is the most appropriate funding source for the study, given that it's a one-time, non-recurring expense, once in 30 years, Additionally, this type of compensation study should not be paid through operating budget monies, and the cost of the study is about 1% of our available free cash.

▶ 1:02:54 Speaker 2: Councillor McMaster had asked me last time about the timeline of the project. We kind of had a few blank dates, and so this is what we are envisioning. Once the funding is approved, the Human Resources Department will issue a request for proposals, and this will happen early March. We'll give consultants four weeks of enough time to review the proposal, to return their proposals, and we assume by early April we'll have all the proposals. I will review the proposals by early May and select a consultant, and we are envisioning that the consultant will be able to commence the project within four weeks of being awarded the contract, which is late May, early June, and the goal is to complete it by the end of the summer, as it will take approximately three to four months.

▶ 1:04:06 Jeff McNaught: Thank you, Ms. Latta. And where we had the screen blocked with the presentation, I don't know if anyone's hands were up. Let me just jot these down. We'll start off with Councillor

▶ 1:04:23 Jeff McNaught: Jamaleddine.

▶ 1:04:28 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mrs. Latta, for this very thoughtful and detailed presentation. A few questions that I have. You mentioned during our conversation that we would have one of the reasons that motivated you to do this project is we might have many employees

▶ 1:04:59 Speaker 2: that are very close to be retired. So we will be hiring a good number to the city. Can you tell me if you have approximate number of how many are around this population? So I was not able to get the number, To assess the number of employees that will be retiring, I think most importantly, we need to be prepared for the future. And this type of study will allow us to be prepared when we have these important positions, many of which are department heads or more specialized positions. Once they retire, we'll be able to be prepared for hiring the new person. And it's not just retirement, as we spoke during the pandemic, a lot of people are moving around. So even just hiring new staff, if staff leaves, we need to be prepared to hire quality and

▶ 1:06:14 Maya Jamaleddine: attract quality and talented staff. Okay. do we know lately the latest position that was open do we know how many applicants did we receive or how many candidates did we receive for this for the latest position for the latest position

▶ 1:06:44 Speaker 2: that was open well um we are currently recruiting for a few positions we are recruiting for um non-union or union i just want to make sure that i'm answering the question and it really doesn't matter either or either way okay uh so the study just to clarify the study has to do with non-union positions um we're currently recruiting for a few union dpws so let's say we have a mechanic welder position we had um it was advertised for a week so we had about 10 applicants now um we have another position a public policy outreach environmental an outreach coordinator and we have received probably 15 plus applicants that have to be

▶ 1:07:40 Maya Jamaleddine: screened so i don't know if they're quality candidates so we have to do this well that's good so we are we are receiving quite a few like many applicants for so we i'm i'm proud of this that my city is attracting good candidates or many candidates for positions um so if we did this study um what's next what's your next step what is it that it's gonna need you to do to do

▶ 1:08:17 Speaker 2: after so once we uh do the study and we receive the final um product then it's up to the mayor broader uh our cfo patrick belarusso our deputy mayor robin campaign and i to review the positions that are identified in the study as adjustments and review how they fall within our uh even the mayor's goals for the city um and we'll figure out what the next step is it's a team effort

▶ 1:08:56 Speaker 7: is i think just to piggyback onto that um counselor and that's a very good question at this point um i think the goal is to get the blueprint in our hand and then figure out um internally um what would be most appropriate if anything uh to implement from it in the short term and over the long term so you know the possibility is there that um recommendations that are made in this study could be implemented in the following fiscal year, for example. Or there could be recommendations coming out of the study about position descriptions that need to be modified that, frankly, could be made instantaneously through the mayor's office. there are i guess there are a number of potential sort of potentialities here we just simply don't know this evening what that timeline is and what it would what it actually looks like until we

▶ 1:09:59 Maya Jamaleddine: actually complete the study thank you mr van campen uh so we might do something and we might just keep the blueprint and we don't do anything about it like there might be no action after that

▶ 1:10:23 Leila Migliorelli: theoretically yes okay okay thank you thank you chair mcnaught thank you miss lata um for this presentation i think um you know you made a great case at the last meeting and this um very well thought out and detailed presentation um only helped enhance that and i think it's not only good for us but good for the community as well to be able to take a look at get a sense of what your plans are for the HR department with this study. I think, you know, as I said last time, you know, part of my hesitation for not supporting the order or holding it in committee was related to free cash. And my questions around that, which I had asked the administration about the overall sort of plan, the free cash, I think distribution plan was what it was referred to. And, you know, I received a response back regarding the delay of that plan due to the snow and ice and what can't be anticipated with those outstanding costs. And as we know, winter will probably last till April, if not longer. So I anticipate it to be a long time before we get those costs. And so it was just curious, I think of the timing of this study needing to approve this now. And so I guess one question Ms. Latta for you is that is there a sort of rationale about why why this needs to be completed you know during the summer is there some is there just any other um information i know that you know councillor Jamaleddine mentioned that there were some anticipated open positions so i was wondering

▶ 1:11:58 Speaker 2: if you can speak to that part of the timing well yes um the reason i wanted to get um the study done now is that if once we get the funds the kind of natural timeline of requesting the rfp and screening it and and frankly summers are a little bit um slower for us although i jinx myself this summer so uh being able to focus on that study once uh the fall comes and then the winter months that's that's pretty busy so being able to get the study done focus on it and then um having that blueprint to whether um we need to update job descriptions um and or make decisions we will have that um thank you do you feel like you have the resources

▶ 1:12:42 Leila Migliorelli: to implement um the the the results of the study i mean like as you just mentioned you know redoing job description that's a lot of work so um would there be follow-up costs maybe associated with this study that we should be sort of considering and planning for i think we're going to uh figure

▶ 1:13:00 Speaker 2: that out once we receive the the results of the study um i don't know just yet okay thank you um

▶ 1:13:11 Leila Migliorelli: i think just to you know kind of close out my thoughts um about free cash and i think the the planning for that has been a little bit sort of um unclear you know we have five million of free cash um for this year and um you know just i would hope the administration think uh forward to maybe perhaps there's some sort of even broad um brush ideas about how um free cash is going to be allocated i know that the response in the past has been um you know we that's not something we do that's not not how it's done but um you know just given all the considerations of this year being sort of unprecedented in many ways um it would just i think be helpful for us as counselors to get as much lead time as possible and for the community to understand what the priorities are for such a large sum of money thank you chair mcnaught thank you counselor gregaritis

▶ 1:14:06 Jen Grigoraitis: thank you chair mcnaught and through the chair i just want to thank counselor Migliorelli for her comments and i echo those questions about kind of larger priorities for free cash as we move forward especially given what we're facing with covid um in our community but with relation to this study i know there was a slide referencing um the various state and federal laws that were obviously required to comply with um and when you haven't done a compensation study in 30 years that that raises some questions um could you or perhaps mr van campen speak to how we've ensured that we're in compliance with the pay equity law which has been the law of the land here in massachusetts since 2019 and i know the best practice recommended by the mass commission against discrimination was to have a comp study to ensure compliance with that law i know i'm asking about what was done under previous administrations but i just want to make sure that we're all clear that while we maybe have not done the most comprehensive study that we're certainly in compliance with laws yeah

▶ 1:15:10 Speaker 7: that's a good question and i if um mrs latte would just defer to me for one minute on that um we to your point uh counselor Grigoraitis um we we certainly endeavor every day to ensure that we are uh treating everyone equally under the law and we're protecting everyone's rights under the law so we do that on a on an everyday basis in this city this this compensation study should not be taken in the public as any um reflection that somehow that is not happening that is um uh that is clearly not not accurate um and i know that some folks might ask that question but the study itself as you point out is something that the mass commission against discrimination actually um has recommended as a way to ensure that you're compliant with the massachusetts equal pay act and so um although we do it on a on a on an everyday basis. My hope is that this type of a study will help future, if you will, future department heads and future mayors avoid those unnecessary pitfalls where you have to make compensation decisions and you want to ensure that you're treating everyone equally. So I hope that answers your question, but if you have a follow-up, by all means. No, I mean, I certainly assume that

▶ 1:16:28 Jen Grigoraitis: city aspires every day to comply with all of the laws of the land i just i mean to that end i i think it's really hard to ensure equity in a systemic way without regular review and i would encourage us not to wait another 33 years before we do this study and to really build something like this into the budget of the hr department because i i yeah i certainly get uncomfortable when we talk about something like this as a superfluous thing when it's critical to ensuring the equity that we're required to provide under the law yeah and that's and that is a great point

▶ 1:17:02 Speaker 7: and mrs lata could attest to the fact that in looking at other communities um that have done uh similar studies um some of those communities are doing these studies on a three to five year basis so um we'll be we'll hopefully be back sooner than 30 years from now but um you're right it's a good point we should try to get this on a on a consistent sustained supported basis so that we we can we can have an ongoing modern system in place and it's a very good point

▶ 1:17:41 Jeff McNaught: thank you okay next we have uh counselor mcmaster and if anyone else if i've missed you please

▶ 1:17:52 Shawn M. MacMaster: raise your hand but we have council mcmaster thank you mr chairman and thank you to the members of the administration for being here i'm not one who needs to be convinced on why we need to do this The fact that we haven't done it in over 33 years is enough for me and I also am looking at this as a important investment in our workforce, both our current employees and our future employees. What gives me some pause is whether or not the study will produce good data. Mr. Van Kampen had said that the Broder administration strives to make decisions based in data and on objective criteria and i'm glad that he said that because that does really get to the heart of the concerns that i raised at the last meeting in that i communicated in an email to miss latta and members of the administration on january 17th i do see that the rfp is the same it hasn't been amended and i'm wondering whether or not this is set in stone or if the administration is amenable to making some changes that would ensure that we are really getting the the best data to inform decisions moving forward and i just want to point back to page two and this is the bottom of page two of the rfp mislata under the compensation section where it says analysis that says survey no more than 12 comparable municipalities identified in conjunction with the city with the city to compare compensation for up to 65 position titles i really would like to see the rfp signify the city's willingness to give greater control to the independent firm um in the design of the study because when we're when we're saying no more than and it's in conjunction with the city you're creating a situation where there could be sampling bias and uh that's something i just think we want to be very um cautious about if we're making the investment which you've convinced me that we need to make this investment we need to make sure that the the money that's being spent is giving us data that provides uh information that maybe is

▶ 1:20:18 Shawn M. MacMaster: isn't all that favorable um and when you limit it it creates a situation i think where it may seem like we're searching for a particular answer and the the data whatever it reveals we have to live with and if it's the findings are inauspicious and it shows that we have department heads and non-contractual employees who are underpaid as i would suggest that you know something like this hasn't been done for over 33 years that's probably the case and i would agree that mr delarusso and mr van campen and probably miss lata are also underpaid but i think we need to know that that data as difficult as it may be and you know when we We limit the ability and I understand this is just an RFP. I know it's not a contract, but if I'm looking at this as somebody who works at a firm that may be considering applying and I am a firm that really prides myself on rigorous methods and data collection. it may give me pause as to whether or not I want to pursue something like this. So I'm just wondering whether or not there, one, this is a final RFP, and two, if any consideration has been given to having more control, at least in the RFP, so that firms or they're not dissuaded from taking on a project like this for fear that they don't have complete control over determining the sample, because I would imagine they want the sample to be as generalizable as much to this community and not based on what otherwise may be seen as

▶ 1:22:03 Speaker 7: arbitrary factors. Yeah, I think that's a fair point, and I just wanted to make a quick point before Ms. Lata jumps in, but the RFP that is attached to the order, Counselor, you make a good point. It is a working draft, if you will, for lack of a better way to describe it. you know the administration does have the ability to make changes to the rfp um the the um the point you raise about um a more generalized um data set that is reviewed rather than you know perhaps a little more independence for the for the consultant um we are more than open to that and i think um if that would make this a better study um for the administration for the city council for the community we would very much make that change and work with whichever consultant is ultimately selected to make sure they understand and i know mrs lotto would agree with this that they have full reign within their professional area of expertise to give us the data that we want and and good or bad so i think that's a good point and we are certainly agreeable to um making sure that we're not going to pigeonhole our consultant to a certain data set

▶ 1:23:22 Shawn M. MacMaster: thank you mr van kampen and then the only other question i have is just with respect to the uh project end date i know miss lata said uh he anticipated end date where we would have the the data and our report would be the end of summer uh just a recommendation that that's uh included in the deliverables because i do think that not having an anticipated end dates may also deter responses from some firms that might not be inclined to sign up sign up for a study depending on the length of the study some firms will look at um you know the the study and an end date and it may not be manageable others may may see it as uh being far too uh short um for what they're willing to sign up for again going back to the point about um rigorous uh analysis and if they see it as being you know in their minds uh too hasty uh they may not want to sign up so i would just make a a strong recommendation that we consider um having an end date in there that that information um you know maybe with some flexibility the anticipated uh date where we're looking for a report or at least for an initial uh report on some data outcomes uh would be in august or you know september whatever we mean by end of uh summer we do have in there commencing the project within four weeks so i i don't think it'd be out of the question to have an end date in there because i do think that's a consideration that a firm uh would look at so i just would ask that you consider that and uh thank you miss latta for your work on this and for reaching out

▶ 1:25:09 Jeff McNaught: uh to members of the council prior to the meeting thank you counselor do i have anyone else for the

▶ 1:25:17 Cory Thomas: first time counselor thomas thank you mr chairman uh miss lata uh mr van camp and mr delarusso thank you all for being here uh miss lata thank you very much uh for the powerpoint uh and your accessibility um and your willingness to answer questions uh from the entire council so thank you you for all of that um mr van campen you just said uh a few moments ago that um another a number of communities have done these compensation studies do you know if any local communities have done these and if so uh are these public record and viewable yes i'm going to defer to miss lotto on

▶ 1:25:50 Speaker 7: the that's above my pay grade as far as the number of communities um but it would be our compensation study would be a public record and so the ones that have been done in other municipalities would

▶ 1:26:05 Cory Thomas: be as well so so miss lata um do you know of any local community communities uh you know nearby you know or in middlesex county that have done a recent compensation study you know that we might

▶ 1:26:23 Speaker 2: be able to review today i was speaking with um arlington and as mr van campen mentioned they're actually doing a similar study every three years and they have been doing it this is the fourth time that this particular consultant has done this study for arlington scheduled every three years and i actually mentioned about the timing of the study and they were requesting information from us so we were on the other end and as they said you know it depends on the communities and whether they're able to provide information to us on time um but yes so we have uh the communities that we reached out to that had done a study like that

▶ 1:27:16 Speaker 2: so we have um i know arlington is currently doing it and it will be a public record the study will be complete. We have Denver's, Bridgewater, Marblehead, Shrewsbury,

▶ 1:27:40 Speaker 2: Tewkesbury, Lexington. These are some of the communities that have done it recently. I can't tell you exactly how recently, but they are the ones who provided us with

▶ 1:27:53 Cory Thomas: information. No, that's great information. You know, in communities like Arlington and Danvers are both nearby and similar sizes uh so i think that would be a great reference uh for all of us to look at so thank you very much for that information you're welcome

▶ 1:28:13 Jeff McNaught: any other counselors for the first time seeing none what is the will of the committee

▶ 1:28:26 Jeff McNaught: motion to recommend for passage second second we have a motion to recommend for passage by vice chair eccles seconded by councillor thomas any further discussion seeing none

▶ 1:28:39 Speaker 2: madam clerk will you please call the roll chair mcnaught yes vice chair eccles yes yes yes yes yes