Brewer Questions Weisbroad on Staff Salary Compression

Just finally, from my perspective, the salaries of staff.

So there's different kinds of staff in the mayor's office and city government and in the city council.

There's obviously many workers in both unions.

That's a bargaining discussion.

And then there are the ones that are at, I guess,

at will, I would call them.

So in the city council, I guess my question is, because I have staff very underpaid, I think many council members do also, the staff often of the speaker or the mayor directly in the mayor's office are highly paid.

I know the salaries are both.

So I guess my question is, I don't think this commission or any commission can really

address salaries of staff, but I just didn't know that came up or is that something that we should be...

What do you think about that issue?

It came up in the following context.

You're absolutely right that the...

Are charged and the law requires us only to look at and comment on and opine on the

salaries and compensation of elected officials.

However, one of the factors that the law requires us to look at is what is called wage compression to the extent that

The salaries of elected officials compress the salaries of staff, thus limiting the expertise that the city can hire or that elected officials can hire.

We did look at wage compression, and we were particularly asked by the

district attorneys to look at wage compression, but we found that both in the mayor's office and in the council and elsewhere

in the offices of elected officials, there were many, many, many people who were earning a lot more than the people, the elected officials that they worked for, and so we ultimately determined that

wage compression was not a serious concern in terms of determining the compensation for elected officials.

I certainly agree it's just as hard because individual council members, but that's more of an internal issue, both from the mayor and the city council.

I think you're right.