Supporting a Resilient City Government with Fair Compensation

After Tuesday’s council meeting where I broke a tie in voting for the resolution that creates a new contract for city employees who are not represented by unions, I have been asked to help the community understand why taking this action is important given the uncertainty in the world and the financial challenges we face at the City of Ashland.

There is no doubt that our nation is up against extreme challenges to our democracy, economy, and government and cultural institutions at local, state, and federal levels. Here in Ashland, our major community anchors are struggling with lost funding, rapidly shifting regulations, and greater mental stress on their employees from the general state of the world - alongside escalating wildfire risk and the prospect of major economic shocks. 

It is because of these big challenges, some of which are now arriving and some of which are still on the horizon, that our highest priority at the City of Ashland must be to maintain a stable city government with highly effective staff across the organization and better than average staff leadership. City infrastructure and services create the foundation for prosperity in Ashland and our residents, anchor organizations, and businesses need the City to be steady at the wheel as we navigate through these challenges together. 

The contracts put to council for the three unions and the unrepresented employees do two important things: correct salaries for jobs where demand has increased over time and make sure we are competitive in the labor market. The fact is, we compete in the labor market to recruit and keep the skilled employees who keep our city running. They make sure clean water comes out of our taps, electricity flows into our homes, our beautiful parks sustain our spirits during these trying times, and a highly skilled person arrives when we call for help - among many other services the City provides. The City of Ashland aims to be at the middle of the pack in terms of competitiveness - not a Mercedes or a Yugo, but a solid, dependable Ford.

The labor market determines what various positions cost and how competitive we are at any particular price point in terms of salary. We don't control the market, but we do need to function within it, making sure that we are offering competitive salaries and benefits, so that we can not only recruit good employees, but we can also keep them. Any time there is a transition in a position and a new employee arrives, it is expensive, not only in money, but also in time because it takes a while for that new person to be fully effective in their new job. That is partiticularly the case when it comes to leadership positions in our departments. Leadership transitions are particularly expensive on all fronts.

The timing of these salary adjustments is unfortunate, coming on the heels of a difficult budget process. Do I wish the compensation and classification study had been able to be completed prior to the budget process? Absolutely. Do I wish Ashland hadn't fallen behind in many of its job classifications and compensation packages so that the increases stayed within the budget estimates? No question. 

But we are required to have new union contracts in place that are retroactive to July 1. Not passing the resolution for unrepresented employees would have told 35% of our city staff that we don’t value their work like we value the work of their colleagues who are represented by unions. That’s not fair, and it’s not good practice for the long-term resilience of our community.