Sep. 7—Changing rules for participation in employee pension plans, increasing city contributions for employee health plans and making Juneteenth an official holiday are among the recommendations that Frederick officials could consider for improving employee compensation.
The directors of the city's Human Resources and Budget and Administration departments will brief the mayor and aldermen at a workshop Wednesday on possible changes to the city's structure of pay and benefits.
A comprehensive study of salary and benefits finished in 2021 identified the city's pay scale as its main competitive weakness.
As part of the fiscal 2023 budget, the aldermen approved a new pay scale with a starting salary of at least $20 an hour and set aside $315,000 to implement the study's other recommendations.
The recommendations include:
— providing $90 per pay period for bilingual employees who can provide translation services for the city's communications department
— offering sign-on bonuses for jobs that require different recruitment
— increasing the amount of vacation time that can be carried over
— increasing the accrual of sick leave
— contributing more to employee health care premiums.
The $315,000 is not earmarked for any specific benefit or recommendation, and Wednesday's workshop will start the conversation with the aldermen to decide which areas they would like to focus on first, Karen Paulson, the director of human resources, wrote in an email Tuesday.
Along with the report's recommendation, members of the city's staff recommended:
— offering health benefits to part-time staff members of different pay grades
— removing restrictions from floating holidays
— adding Juneteenth as an official city holiday
— increasing tuition assistance to include fees and textbooks
— using an actuary to review changing the city's pension plan.
For the past several years, Mayor Michael O'Connor, D, has administratively closed city offices on Juneteenth, but it has not been approved as an official holiday, Paulson wrote. The review of the pension plan would look at eliminating the Rule of 90, a formula that decides when an employee can reach their normal retirement date, she wrote.
The rule, adopted by the city in 2012 for new hires, requires that an employee's age at retirement and their years of service must add up to 90 before they're eligible for retirement.
The city offers two pension plans for employees — a 25-year plan and a 30-year plan, Paulson wrote.
Before the rule was adopted, employees were eligible for retirement after completing the number of years required by the plan they participated in, regardless of age.
The cost for implementing the proposed changes has not been determined, because any changes involving pensions will have to be reviewed and estimated by an actuary, Paulson wrote. Wednesday's workshop is scheduled for 3 p.m. at City Hall.