by William Kelly
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The town is fast-tracking efforts to stop an exodus of police and firefighters leaving for other agencies that offer better pay and benefits.
A consultant’s study, comparing compensation of town employees to the local market, is weeks away from completion. That’s too long to wait, the Town Council’s Public Safety Committee decided Wednesday.
“We know we are not market competitive and we know what our weak points are,” said Councilwoman Margaret Zeidman, who chairs the panel. “Our boiling point is public safety. That is where we need to focus our immediate attention.”
Zeidman and Councilwoman Julie Araskog, who also is on the Public Safety Committee, said they’ve spoken with dozens of public safety employees.
“They explained what the issues are,” Araskog said. “We do know where we’re falling short.”
Town Manager Kirk Blouin and Finance Director Jane Le Clainche are analyzing the cost of returning police officers to a popular step-based salary system, Zeidman said.
The step-based model being considered would be a “hybrid” in which longevity would be balanced with employee performance when determining raises, Zeidman said.
For firefighters, Blouin and Le Clainche are analyzing the cost of returning to a 48-hour work week, instead of the current 50.4-hour week, and to a 21-day pay period that would eliminate paycheck fluctuations. The pay period is currently 28 days.
“This is so important,” Zeidman said. “We have to get it right and do it as expediently as we can.”
In 2012, the Town Council replaced the step system with a pay-for-performance model that requires police to work 12 to 16 years before reaching the top of their pay scale. Meanwhile, their counterparts in the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and other local agencies reach top salary in 10 years, Zeidman said.
The council also in 2012 enacted deep cuts to the town’s pension plan, which included lowering a multiplier used to calculate benefits and requiring police and firefighters to wait until they are 65 to draw their pensions. Previously, they could collect pensions after 20 years of employment.
A record number of public safety workers have left the town since 2012, including more than 70 police officers and more than 80 certified firefighters, according to town records.
Some of the pension benefits have since been restored, and public safety workers can now draw pensions at 56. But the pension plan still lags behind that of other agencies, where employees typically can retire after 25 or 30 years.
“We didn’t do enough,” Zeidman said. “They’re still leaving for better benefits.”
New recruits typically stay about two years — long enough for the town to spend $130,000 to train them before they move on to other local agencies, Blouin said.
As department leaders retire, fewer employees have the required experience and ability to replace them, Blouin said. That is creating a management gap that threatens the future of the departments.
Last year, the council ordered a study comparing the town’s compensation of general and public safety employees with those of local market competitors. But consultant Evergreen Solutions isn’t expected to deliver its findings until March 19.
“We are awaiting a compensation study that is frankly not happening quickly enough to help us,” Zeidman said.
Evergreen is waiting for information from other agencies that have no incentive to respond in a timely fashion, she said.
The committee recommended the council on Feb. 14 engage Dan Stanton, chairman of the Retirement Board of Trustees, and actuary Pete Strong to analyze the impact of potential salary and benefit changes on pension funding. The pension program already has a long-term shortfall of about $100 million.
Town staff also are examining pay “compression issues” in the public safety departments, isolated situations where new employees’ salaries are close to that of employees with five or six years’ experience, Zeidman said.