Agenda Item # 1
Columbus Consolidated Government
Council Meeting
August 1, 2006
Agenda Report # 13
TO: Mayor and Council
SUBJECT: FY2007 Pay Plan Administrative Rules
INITIATED: City Manager and Staff
Recommendation: Approve a resolution adopting administrative rules necessary
for the implementation of the University of Georgia Pay Plan adopted by
Columbus Ordinance No. 06-40.
Background: Columbus Council with Ordinance No. 06-40 adopted The University of
Georgia Pay Plan. The Pay Plan was analyzed for special situations affecting
the uniform and fair implementation and future administration of the plan with
rules developed to address those situations.
Analysis: The following rules are necessary to provide clarity to
administration of the new Pay Plan.
1. Personnel Actions During the New Pay Plan Implementation Period.
-- Newly hired employees will start work on/after July 1 at the new pay plan
rate for their respective positions, to simplify administration and help
prevent errors.
-- Promotions and transfers (intra and inter-departmental) during the
implementation period are discouraged. However, those that occur will be held
and processed with retroactive pay (when required), after full implementation
of the pay plan.
2. Multi-level Qualification and Career Ladder positions.
-- UGA assigned some positions multiple levels to provide salary differentials
for different levels of qualifications and competency. Clear measurable
criteria will be used to determine qualification for each advanced level. In
some cases UGA evaluated and placed employees at specific levels while
requirements for others are stated in the plan such as a Georgia Professional
Engineer license; others will require departmental development with approval by
the City Manager.
-- Employees that qualify for advancement will receive the salary obtained by
advancing the current salary in the current grade one (1) step for each grade
that the new grade exceeds the prior grade, or the equivalent thereof, the
employee will then be placed in the new grade at this salary.
-- While levels at which UGA places employees will normally be implemented,
obvious errors will be corrected. Department heads may also request changes in
recommended levels with appropriate justification. In all cases approval of
the City Manager is required.
-- Employees not placed at initial implementation must fully satisfy approved
criteria and/or present valid credentials prior to advancing.
-- In the UGA pay plan the higher-level designation ?Senior? is used in two
ways.
--- The first is when a Tag number is assigned and the position has a separate
job description. Positions so designated are promotional positions and not
part of a career ladder. Employees may only advance to these positions by
successfully competing for an authorized vacant position.
--- The other reference to Senior occurs as a numbered footnote to a position.
When so designated, it is a career ladder advancement opportunity, open to all
employees in the underlying position that meet the established/approved
qualification criteria.
3. Reclassified Positions
-- In developing the new pay plan, UGA evaluators analyzed the duties and
responsibilities of all classified positions. This resulted in many of our
positions being classified at different levels or ranks than they were
previously, some lower and some higher.
-- According to Dr. Condrey a change in classification level is not a promotion
event but, as noted on page 4 of the plan report, ?assignment to a grade in the
classification plan.?
-- Following instructions provided by Dr. Condrey, all employees are placed in
the classification plan according to the position they occupied on June 30,
2006, including employees that changed positions during the study.
-- Therefore, the new promotion policy as approved by Council does not apply to
the initial placement of employees into the new classification plan and will
not result in a promotional salary increase.
Legal: Approval of the Columbus Council is required.
Financial Considerations: There are no costs associated with rules 1
and 3; additional costs associated with rule 2 are not currently known but are
not anticipated to be significant and will commence on a staggered basis over
multiple years.
Recommendation/Actions: Recommended by City Manager and Staff.
Attachments
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