City council debates creation of a new job title for an existing position

[August 14, 2015]  LINCOLN - On Tuesday evening the city discussed creating a new salaried postion in the City Clerk’s Office, “Sewer Clerk.” This is an unusual situation because it is creating an official title for a position that already exists, but up until just recently was a union position with an hourly rate of pay, and now is not.

There was a point in time when there were a number of employees in secretarial and clerk positions in the city of Lincoln that belonged to a union. Their positions and pay were determined through union rules and collective bargaining.

However, that has changed. With the retirement of Brenda McCabe from the city police department, the city of Lincoln was left with only one union clerk position. According to union rules, one person does not constitute a collective bargaining unit. In addition, the person filling that position, Dawn Crowell, is not interested in staying in a union. Therefore, the city will create the title of Sewer Clerk, which will be a full-time, salaried position in the city.

City Administrator Clay Johnson said the position was being established with an entry-level salary of $25,625 per year.

The scenario became somewhat complicated when the council began looking not so much at the position as at the person currently filling the position. City Clerk Susan Gehlbach first noted to the council that Crowell has been doing her job for over three years. Gehlbach didn’t feel that paying her an entry-level salary was appropriate.

Others agreed, saying that the entry level salary also didn’t compensate Crowell for the work she does above and beyond the title. It was noted that Crowell has exceptional computer skills when working with software and programs. Jonie Tibbs noted that Crowell has done things for the city that would have cost thousands of dollars to hire out.

Michelle Bauer said that, yes, Crowell had done some great things, and she didn’t want to take away from that. But, she added that while Crowell has that capability, it is not a job requirement for a Sewer Clerk. She said if the occasion arose that someone else is hired to fill the Sewer Clerk position, the IT capabilities would not be part of that job description.

Marty Neitzel said she understood what Bauer was saying, but the fact remained that Crowell was doing good work for the city that is not being reflected in her paycheck.

This led to a discussion of an employee evaluation program. The city currently has no such program. It was brought up that if there were an employee evaluation program, wages could be increased based on merit.

Gehlbach noted that the budget for the year had included a gross salary of $25,750 for the position. She said that Crowell deserved to be paid the full budgeted amount.

Kathy Horn said that the city could adopt the entry level pay, but pay Crowell a little more. Johnson said that was an issue in the city that he would like to see corrected. He explained that right now, the city has no set standards for pay for non-union new hires. He said he was trying to achieve uniformity in pay according to position.

Prior to the evening’s discussion, it had been a problem in the council when working on the annual budget. At that time, the clerk replacing Brenda McCabe had been hired at a pay level the council felt was a bit high, and they didn’t recall being consulted on the starting wage. Johnson noted then that the city needed to establish a pay scale according to position and make it more uniform across the board for all non-union positions.

Mayor Scott Cooper said they were veering off the real topic. He said the council needed to decide to approve or not, the entry level position and pay. He said the other issues to Crowell specifically could be dealt with separately.

Michelle Bauer suggested that the council approve the entry level pay, but give Crowell the additional $125 based on years of service and as a pat on the back for a job well done.

Most aldermen appeared to agree with Bauer’s suggestion. The item is expected to be placed on the voting agenda for next week.

[Nila Smith]