The Mayor likes to brag about how he runs Sioux Falls like a business. Looking at the salary packages of city employees since 2010 and you will certainly see that he is either running a corporate business model when rewarding ‘certain’ employees for what seems like loyalty or he is using public treasure to be in good graces with these employees.
The below graphic is just a sliver of the data processed. We found that many of the lower end city employees did not receive any or only COLA increases from 2010-2013 (coming out of a recession) while management and promoted workers received enormous increases. Yearly increases for some of the management/supervisor employees was between 12-15%. Remember, this is when tax revenue was down, and we were coming out of an economic downturn.
This graphic only shows the TOP 44 employess who received the largest increases over a 5 year period of time. While some of the department managers did not receive as high as increases, their wage increases were enormous when compared to the private sector (more on that later).
I left the names of the employees off of the chart, because I concluded though this is public record, it really isn’t about WHO was getting these increases it was about how they are conducted. The layman looking at this would seem to be confused at the rhyme or reason as to how these increases occurred (more on that later). I have often felt public salary increases should be based on three things;
1) COLA
2) Tax revenue increase percentage
3) Performance and Promotion (did the employee reach the objectives given to them by management?
4) Efficiency and Accuracy while maintaining a high level of customer service
It is also important to remember, that some of the larger increases below were due to employees moving from a temp or part-time employee to a full-time employee, but where the shocker comes in is after a small promotion the big leap in salary.
It would seem that none of these employees are management-level employees given the job titles and wages. The vast majority of employees you’ve shown here are currently making between $30k and $50k.
Given that, I’d also hazard that all of these employees, with perhaps the exception of the Recreation Program Coordinator, are non-exempt employees and have no management or supervisory capacity. That means their wage scale is dictated by a collective bargaining agreement between their respective unit and the city.
It’s pretty hard to “reward” employees who are locked into a step system. If their performance meets standard each year, they move to the next step. They don’t get to jump steps. It’s possible some of these employees were promoted into different positions with higher pay ranges or, like you said, transitioned from part-time to full-time work. It’s also possible that some positions were rescored and moved into higher pay grades.
But I really doubt there’s anything nefarious going on with the salary of a Library Assistant or an HR Payroll Analyst.
I didn’t say anything about it being nefarious or illegal. It just doesn’t seem right that PUBLIC employees are getting these kind of wage increases while PRIVATE sector employees have seen little to NO raises over the same time period. The public sector should be somewhat of a reflection of private sector. Like I said, nothing illegal or nefarious, just morally questionable when our elected officials (in this case, the mayor, the city manager) is not being prudent with our tax dollars when it comes to wages.
Most of those folks were part time and sometimes job levels and pay need to be equalized across departmental divides based on similar work duties.
Corporate culture….Huh????
There’s been inflation since 2010 and regular increases for experience are expected. From a cursary review, this outline seems proper. What I’d like to see is that it is mandatory for city employees to live inside city limits. Mostly, from a commute and disaster availability approach. Otherwise, I want to know city employees are proud of the city and choose to spend and pay taxes inside city limits.
$30,000 to $50,000 dollars, which is what most of these people are now being paid, is not excessive. That is just a living wage these days. Glad to see the city is doing this. Maybe others will start paying a living wage, verses what some businesses do and pay just enough to be able to hire someone.
I would agree, but this isn’t about what they are getting paid, it is about the raise percentages. No where in Private industry between 2010-2015 have I seen those kind of increases.
Again DL, your assumption here is that these raises you’re alleging were for equal work in an identical position that was not reclassified or had its job duties changed. You’re making an outrageous number of assumptions to draw your conclusion. If you have evidence you’re not, you should provide it.
Shall we say city raises are automatic and cost of living while private enterprise pay is set and without regular review. It seems to me that you have to leave a regular job because it’s not enough to live on. You’re best bet is to get hired away. Then, it’s a little more pay but more work and responsibilty. The difference is government is public money from escalated taxes and private is someone using you to get rich.
i make 16 CENTS more an hour than I did 10 years ago. thank you teamsters!
If someone started part way through the 2010 fiscal year, the salary reported for them in that particular year could be significantly less than their actual annual salary. This could account for the appearance of a more significant increase in salary than what actually occurred.