City HR Director Voices Concern About Losing Employees With CDLs
October 2, 2021 at 12:41 a.m.
By David [email protected]
During the Common Council’s meeting Thursday, in which the Council approved all four 2022 salary ordinances, Councilman Mike Klondaris said he had an “interesting” conversation with Whitaker recently about “concerns” he heard from department heads regarding losing employees to local industries or other government agencies.
“She has informed me that, in some instances the people that have left, thinking the grass is greener on the other side, migrated back to the city. She gave me hope that we’re not going to be losing employees over salary,” he said, adding that he was glad to hear that. “Because we’re only as good as the people we have working for us.”
Whitaker said probably the last three or four individuals who left city employment requested and applied to return to the city. They were rehired and she said they are “great” employees.
Mayor Joe Thallemer commented, “For as long as I’ve been here, Jennifer and the salary committee have used external data ... the wage committee is on this thing. If we see that there’s areas where we’re lagging behind, the wage committee has done a great job of trying to even things out. We talked this year that we can’t do it all at once. ... It’s a tough time and the wage committee has done a wonderful job, with Jennifer, in being responsive to that.”
Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins, who sits on the wage committee with Council members Jeff Grose and Diane Quance, said that one of the things the committee has tried to look at over the last couple of years is rewarding those employees who have stepped up and got additional certifications, training, etc.
Quance said the committee looks at wages and benefit packages together. “So I think that’s what employees are finding when they leave. They go on to make more money, but when the paycheck comes home, they’re actually making less money because their benefits are so costly,” she said. “One of the things we chose to do this year, rather than bump it up as high as like you might see at the county having bumped up theirs, we chose to give the savings to the employees in their pockets with their insurance premium.”
Whitaker said a couple of the positions she’s really concerned about and that are on her radar are the “individuals who are holding those CDLs, the construction, the ones who have that training and that talent and that ability to put lines in the ground, do curb work for us, do asphalt things.”
She reminded the Council the city has wage analysis that has been out. “And I’m not going to be surprised when I see those positions really kind of climb up on that wage scale,” she said. “What I am noticing, because everyone is scrambling for a certain labor type of position right now is that I’m starting to see the wages compress because we have to be competitive with other private sectors – Phend & Brown, G & G Hauling, things like that – places like that are also looking for that talent. Even general laborers are getting a little bit harder to hire in, so we’re having to bring those wages up a little bit higher now.”
Council President Jack Wilhite thanked the wage committee for working on the wages.
“It’s such a balancing act. We have to, to a degree, compete with the private sector because we want good employees. We want to give them a fair wage,” he said. “On the other hand, the city is not as capable of growing the amount of money that can come in to pay for those employees. That makes it really tough on the other end, too.”
Whitaker, in order to make the Council aware, pointed out that, “Those CDLs ... they are not going to slow it down and they are proceeding, at the first of the year, that anybody who has to get a CDL has to go through a school now. Right now we’re training them in house and we’re sending them to BMV, we’re sending them to testing locations to get those CDLs, and we can’t do that anymore. So it’s going to cost the individual – they’re saying anywhere from $5,000 to $7,000 for a CDL. Right off the bat.”
Thallemer said that is a regulatory change. Whitaker said it’s a federal requirement that won’t just affect the city but everywhere.
“Those CDLs are going to be the golden ticket, and I appreciate the wage committee and everyone helping me keep an eye on that and understand that’s going to be very important,” Whitaker said.
Councilman Josh Finch asked how many city employees have their CDL. Whitaker estimated 35 to 40, including about everyone in the street department, every maintenance person at wastewater and a couple at the park department. There’s also an individual at the cemetery with a CDL.
“It takes a long time to replace them because we’re having to hire somebody without one because we aren’t able to compete with someone that has one right now, and then we train them. Sometimes they leave and we’re the training ground,” Whitaker said.
She noted she was very anxious to get that salary study back to see what it says.
During the Common Council’s meeting Thursday, in which the Council approved all four 2022 salary ordinances, Councilman Mike Klondaris said he had an “interesting” conversation with Whitaker recently about “concerns” he heard from department heads regarding losing employees to local industries or other government agencies.
“She has informed me that, in some instances the people that have left, thinking the grass is greener on the other side, migrated back to the city. She gave me hope that we’re not going to be losing employees over salary,” he said, adding that he was glad to hear that. “Because we’re only as good as the people we have working for us.”
Whitaker said probably the last three or four individuals who left city employment requested and applied to return to the city. They were rehired and she said they are “great” employees.
Mayor Joe Thallemer commented, “For as long as I’ve been here, Jennifer and the salary committee have used external data ... the wage committee is on this thing. If we see that there’s areas where we’re lagging behind, the wage committee has done a great job of trying to even things out. We talked this year that we can’t do it all at once. ... It’s a tough time and the wage committee has done a wonderful job, with Jennifer, in being responsive to that.”
Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins, who sits on the wage committee with Council members Jeff Grose and Diane Quance, said that one of the things the committee has tried to look at over the last couple of years is rewarding those employees who have stepped up and got additional certifications, training, etc.
Quance said the committee looks at wages and benefit packages together. “So I think that’s what employees are finding when they leave. They go on to make more money, but when the paycheck comes home, they’re actually making less money because their benefits are so costly,” she said. “One of the things we chose to do this year, rather than bump it up as high as like you might see at the county having bumped up theirs, we chose to give the savings to the employees in their pockets with their insurance premium.”
Whitaker said a couple of the positions she’s really concerned about and that are on her radar are the “individuals who are holding those CDLs, the construction, the ones who have that training and that talent and that ability to put lines in the ground, do curb work for us, do asphalt things.”
She reminded the Council the city has wage analysis that has been out. “And I’m not going to be surprised when I see those positions really kind of climb up on that wage scale,” she said. “What I am noticing, because everyone is scrambling for a certain labor type of position right now is that I’m starting to see the wages compress because we have to be competitive with other private sectors – Phend & Brown, G & G Hauling, things like that – places like that are also looking for that talent. Even general laborers are getting a little bit harder to hire in, so we’re having to bring those wages up a little bit higher now.”
Council President Jack Wilhite thanked the wage committee for working on the wages.
“It’s such a balancing act. We have to, to a degree, compete with the private sector because we want good employees. We want to give them a fair wage,” he said. “On the other hand, the city is not as capable of growing the amount of money that can come in to pay for those employees. That makes it really tough on the other end, too.”
Whitaker, in order to make the Council aware, pointed out that, “Those CDLs ... they are not going to slow it down and they are proceeding, at the first of the year, that anybody who has to get a CDL has to go through a school now. Right now we’re training them in house and we’re sending them to BMV, we’re sending them to testing locations to get those CDLs, and we can’t do that anymore. So it’s going to cost the individual – they’re saying anywhere from $5,000 to $7,000 for a CDL. Right off the bat.”
Thallemer said that is a regulatory change. Whitaker said it’s a federal requirement that won’t just affect the city but everywhere.
“Those CDLs are going to be the golden ticket, and I appreciate the wage committee and everyone helping me keep an eye on that and understand that’s going to be very important,” Whitaker said.
Councilman Josh Finch asked how many city employees have their CDL. Whitaker estimated 35 to 40, including about everyone in the street department, every maintenance person at wastewater and a couple at the park department. There’s also an individual at the cemetery with a CDL.
“It takes a long time to replace them because we’re having to hire somebody without one because we aren’t able to compete with someone that has one right now, and then we train them. Sometimes they leave and we’re the training ground,” Whitaker said.
She noted she was very anxious to get that salary study back to see what it says.
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