5.2. ERMUSR 11-18-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Elk River Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING TO: FROM: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Wage and Benefits Committee: John Dietz—Chair John Dietz, Troy Adams, Mark Fuchs, Theresa Al Nadeau—Vice Chair Slominski Daryl Thompson—Trustee MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: November 18, 2014 5.2 SUBJECT: Wage and Benefits Committee Update: Cost of Living Adjustment BACKGROUND: In October 2011,the Utilities Commission formed a Wage and Benefits Committee. The Utilities Commission created the committee to be comprised of one appointed Commissioner, currently John Dietz—Utilities Chair, and three Utilities managers, Troy Adams—General Manager, Theresa Slominski—Finance and Office Manager, and Mark Fuchs—Electric Superintendent. The intent for the creation was to have the committee review and analyze wage and benefits information, receive comments and questions from employees relating to wage and benefits, function as a forum for discussion, and ultimately present select wage and benefit information to the Utilities Commission for action. DISCUSSION: On November 6,the Committee reviewed cost of living adjustments (COLA)numbers from our market. Although some numbers were still preliminary, the comparable sample indicates some market stability with all samples falling within a very tight range. The range of the comparable Municipals sampled runs from 2.0%to 3.5%with the average COLA for the comparable Municipals sampled falling between 2.75%and 2.88%. The average COLA of the adjacent cooperatives sampled should fall between 2.80% and 2.88%. The neighboring investor owned utility will have a 2.5% COLA for 2015. The"metro-average" should fall between 2.71%and 2.79%. The Committee discussed the recently created pay plan groups which were created to allow flexibility for the adjusting to the multiple workforce markets. Because of recent corrective adjustments made, the Committee felt that the pay plan is currently providing market equality for all four groups. The Committee believes that because of this current equality,the 2015 COLA should be applied equally to all four pay plan groups. Because of the work that went into recent pay plan group adjustments, the Committee discussed maintaining pace with the comparable market trend. This would result in a COLA of 2.75%. P O W E R E D IT Page 1 of 2 NATURE Reliable Public E Power Provider P O W E R E D T o S E R V E 65