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REVIEW AND DISCUSSION OF THE SALARY AND BENEFITS OF THE MAYOR PURSUANT TO SECTION 410 OF THE STOCKTON CITY CHARTER
recommended action
RECOMMENDATION
This item is for information and discussion only, and no action is required at this time. The Salary Setting Commission shall review and discuss the contents of this report, and if necessary, request staff to prepare additional information for consideration, or propose salary and benefit recommendations based on the information provided and direct staff to prepare a staff report for concurrence at the next Salary Setting Commission meeting.
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Background
Pursuant to City of Stockton Charter Article IV, Section 410, “Between March 1st and April 30th of a Mayoral election year, the Council Salary Setting Commission shall recommend to the Council the amount of monthly salary and the benefits which it deems appropriate for the Mayor, and that the amount recommended for the Mayor shall exceed that of the other members of the Council.”
Stockton Charter Article IV, Section 410 further states, “in the first year after passage, which will be the odd year, the Salary Setting Commission will make salary recommendations for the Mayor; however, the Mayor’s salary shall not be further adjusted for the remainder of the Mayor’s current term of office.”
Since the Salary Setting Commission’s inception in 2000, the Commission has convened eight times - 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015 to make recommendations on salaries and benefits. The following is a chart showing the recommendations made since the inception of the Commission in 2001:
|
Year |
Salary |
Benefits |
Council Action |
|
2001 |
$61,365 |
$450 Auto/ Med Ins or $696/mo Option |
Accepted |
|
2003 |
$69,403 |
No Change |
Declined for Council members; Mayor automatic |
|
2005 |
$75,109 |
40.5 cents per Mile/Med Ins or $890/mo. Option |
Accepted |
|
2007 |
$82,088.52 |
Medical Ins or $1054/mo. Option |
Accepted |
|
2009 |
$95,992 |
Medical Ins or $1,280/mo. Option |
Accepted, with exceptions relating to the Mayor’s salary |
|
2011 |
$102,232 |
Medical Ins or Cash Option |
Accepted, with exceptions relating to the Mayor’s salary |
|
2013 |
$104,790.40 |
Medical Ins or Cash Option |
Salary Accepted: Council recommended removing language to tie Mayor’s salary to the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors |
|
2015 |
$72,384 |
Medical Ins and added life insurance policy of $50,000 |
Salary accepted |
As noted above, the 2015 Salary Setting Commission recommended, and City Council approved, setting the Mayor’s annual salary at $72,384, as well as continuing to offer medical benefits available to full-time employees and including a $50,000 life insurance benefit.
Discussion
Historically, staff has provided salary and benefit information to the Salary Setting Commission in advance of the first meeting. In anticipation of this meeting and to assist the Salary Setting Commissioners with their discussions, City staff prepared the attached salary survey (Attachment A). This survey pool includes the same agencies used for employee compensation review for all non-safety City employees, using three different market tiers that include local, regional, and statewide geographical areas. The local market includes comparable cities within 55 miles of Stockton and San Joaquin County. The regional market is broader and includes five comparable cities from the East Bay and Central Valley areas. Finally, the statewide market includes four cities similar to Stockton in various regions of the State. While the Salary Setting Commission is not bound to use these same comparable agencies, it is important to note that these agencies are used, based on geographical location and comparable size/services, for comparison purposes when conducting employee compensation studies.
The 2015 Salary Setting Commission requested staff include salary related information for all cities in California with a population of 50% above and 50% below that of Stockton; meaning cities with populations between 150,000 to 450,000. Based on all the information gathered, the Salary Setting Commission then asked staff to focus the salary survey analysis on full-time positions. The compiled information was updated for this Salary Setting Commission and is included in the attached survey (Attachment B). It is important to note, that during the process of collecting the data for the agencies with comparable populations filtered by those with full-time Mayors this resulted in the same pool of agencies already used by the City for their compensation surveys and included herein as Attachment A. Thus, resulting in the same market comparator data.
Based on the salary survey information, nine of the agencies surveyed have full-time equivalent Mayor positions while the remaining surveyed agencies have part-time Mayors. Based on the full-time Mayor salary study information, the Stockton’s Mayor salary of $72,384 is 21.58% below the market median, which equated to $92,305. The average, or mean, market salary of those agencies surveyed with full-time Mayors was $85,372, which indicates that Stockton’s Mayor salary is below market by 15.21%.
The Salary Setting Commission may take any action it deems appropriate with respect to recommending the salary for the Mayor including increasing, decreasing, or recommending no change in compensation. The Salary Setting Commission must articulate the reasons for their recommendation.
Summary
This item is for information and discussion only, and no action is required this time. As stated above, the Salary Setting Commission shall review and discuss the contents of this report. The Commission may then request City staff to prepare additional information for consideration, or propose a recommendation for the Mayor’s salary and benefits based on the information provided and direct staff to prepare a staff report for concurrence at the next Salary Setting Commission meeting.