by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Taking a cue from the Mayor’s office and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department, City Council president Lad Daniels said salary ranges for the Council staff could be re-established by early spring.
Of salaries up for review, positions include the Council secretary, division chiefs and executive assistants. Council member salaries won’t change.
Daniels discussed the City salary ordinance at Monday’s Personnel Committee meeting and will likely attach it to tonight’s Council meeting addendum.
“There aren’t any proposed ranges just yet,” said Daniels, “but we wanted to introduce legislation and get discussion on the table.”
Salary ranges for the Council staff haven’t been reviewed in approximately two years.
“It’s not mandated for us to do this every year,” said Daniels after the meeting. “We just do this every so often as the market changes and circumstances arise. Plus, we understand that the JSO and the Mayor’s office are looking to make some changes, and we want to do the same.
“We thought it would be best practice to look at the entire package at the same time and keep some consistency there.”
Mayor’s office spokesperson Heather Murphy confirmed the Mayor’s office salary reviews.
“It’s part of a regular process,” said Murphy, “but we won’t have any specific details for some time while we make our recommendations.”
Daniels said the review process would likely be modeled after standard private-sector policies, with a 2 to 4 percent differential tacked onto the lower and higher end of each salary range.
“I think [the private sector] should be the benchmark there,” he said. “But again, it’s going to take some time while we look at each job to see what should be done and do some proper negotiating.”
Barring complications, Daniels said, the new salary ranges would be retroactive to the beginning of this fiscal year.
“We don’t want to penalize anyone who would happen to fall between any kind of range change,” said Daniels. “You want to be able to take care of all of your employees as best you can and make sure they have the opportunity to take advantage of a newer scale.”
The Council salary range ordinance will adhere to recommendations made by the Personnel Committee chaired by Daniels. The similar ordinances for the JSO and the Mayor’s office will undergo the scrutiny of the Council Finance committee in January.