By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT – The city council shot down an attempt by City Manager Ryan McNutt to raise the pay for non-union employees so he could hire a tax assessor.
The position of assessor had been temporarily filled by Joe Lessard, who stepped down at the end of November, but McNutt reported at a previous meeting that he was struggling to find qualified candidates who would relocate to Claremont and work for the salary the city offers.
At a previous council meeting McNutt had requested permission to raise the pay of grade 11 workers, of which the assessor would be one. He returned to the council with a revamped pay scale for all grades, which earned the ire of council member Andrew O’Hearne.
“I don’t believe this is what we asked for,” said O’Hearne. “We asked for just grade 11.”
O’Hearne had also asked for a comprehensive report on what every city employee earns, broken down to include how much they pay for health insurance and the details of their benefit packages. He said McNutt had only supplied him with information on every employee’s hourly wage.
The current non-union or “merit” employee pay scale was set in 2014. Pay grades 1, 2 and 3 for such jobs as parking enforcement officer, crossing guards, and summer help, are minimum wage, $7.25 an hour; 4a, 4b and 4c (on call firefighters) earn up to one dollar more, plus up to $650/year; grades 5 – 7 (legal assistants, janitors, circulation librarian) earn from $25,000 up to $50,424; grade 8 (health services inspector, superintendent of recreation programs) begins with a minimum of $36,630 and maxes out at $55,714; grade 9 (city engineer, fire captain) begins at $42,350 and climbs to $64,414. Grade 11 (deputy fire chief, director of parks and recreation) begins at $53,410 and reaches the maximum at $81,237.
McNutt proposed a new pay scale that would affect grades 5 and up, although he emphasized raises are at his discretion, based on merit. Grade 5 would begin at $30,240 and top out at $45,995; grade 6 at $37,998 and top out at $57,795, and so forth up to grade 11 ($61,422 to $93,422) and grade 12 ($70,196 to $106,768).
In response to O’Hearne’s criticism, McNutt said it was a time-consuming process and it seemed more efficient to do all the grades at once rather than just one or two.
He returned to the need to hire a tax assessor, saying raising the pay would make it possible to hire a well-qualified person who, moreover, lives in Claremont and is familiar with the city properties.
Councilman Scott Pope said, “I’m aware of the need to hire quality people… but I’m a union member. I know what it’s like for the people whose boots are on the ground. I’m having a hard time with this.”
As at previous city council meetings, members of the unions representing the Department of Public Works filled many of the audience chairs. The city is currently in negotiations over the two unions’ contract.
McNutt said the merit employees don’t have collective bargaining power like the union employees. “Our unions for the most part have had increases every year …”
Several coughs and skeptical throat-clearings attended this remark. McNutt answered the skeptics that whether or not they received raises in their pay checks, city union employees had received an increase in the form of health insurance, which allows them to spend more of their paychecks.
“Merit plan folks have not had any increase in over four years,” said McNutt. “This is not guaranteed they will get anything.”
O’Hearne said, “Merit plan employees are bosses,” and said they get paid more and pay less for health insurance.
“This is a slap in the face to these union employees, trying to move up [pay] for merit employees. I think we should finish with the union employees and then address the merit plan.”
All but one council member voted against the pay scale increases; Claire Lessard voted for it.
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