IRVINE : Council Advised to Skip ‘Average’ Wage

The city should avoid adopting a policy of paying employees an “average” wage because the work they do has been and is expected to be above average, City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. told the City Council this week.

A committee of outside personnel managers last month had recommended that Irvine drop its 1985 policy of paying employees wages that rank in the top fourth of other Orange County cities’ pay scales. Instead, employees should be paid closer to the average of eight comparable cities and other public agencies, the committee said.

Brady gave his report Tuesday to respond to the committee’s recommendations.

Several of the recommendations should be seriously considered, Brady said, such as limiting the amount of vacation time managers may accrue and conducting further review of the city’s health insurance and retirement programs. But the city’s pay policy should stand, he said.

“Previous City Councils approved compensation packages that recognized and addressed hard work, dedication, quality performance and the recruitment and retention of exceptional public employees,” Brady’s report said. “We must be very careful that we do not reduce or eliminate this philosophy.”

The council voted to accept Brady’s recommendation to retain the policy to pay in the upper fourth, but modify it as the committee suggested to compare Irvine salaries to eight similar cities rather than all cities in Orange County.

Councilman Barry J. Hammond said he was afraid that a fixed policy of paying in the top fourth will cause public employee salaries to continue spiraling upward as cities constantly compare their employee pay levels to each other.

“You just keep this bidding war and the price goes up and up and up,” Hammond said.

The committee’s report had prompted fear among hourly employees as the city’s labor unions begin salary negotiations with the city, said Bill Sellin, a parks supervisor and member of the negotiating team for the Irvine City Employees Assn., the city’s largest union.

City employees are working harder and longer hours because the year-old hiring freeze has left many positions open but still the same amount of work remains, Sellin said. In addition, employees began to worry after the City Council passed a two-year budget this summer with no money set aside for a cost-of-living pay increase, and council members said last month that they supported all of the pay committee’s recommendations, he said.

“It’s starting to threaten the lifestyle and security of people who have given their lives to this organization,” said Sellin, a 13-year employee.

Still, employees are not panicked, said Dennis Ruvolo, an animal services field officer. They have confidence that the bargaining process will produce fair contracts, he said.