As it turns out the third time is the charm and the Greensboro City Council by a 5-4 vote at the Tuesday, July 20 meeting approved the transition to a salary step plan for city employees.
The City Council had discussed the step plan at length at two previous meetings but had not held an official vote and had not reached a consensus, which is the method used to make decisions in council work sessions.
Currently city employees receive raises based on the merit system, where the amount of the raise is determined by their supervisors based on the employee’s evaluation.
Perhaps the third time is unfair because Councilmember Sharon Hightower said she has been pushing for this transition for seven years.
The estimated $100,000 to start the transition was included in the manager’s recommended budget in May and in the higher budget passed by the City Council on June 15. However, during the City Council budget work sessions and budget votes, the council could not make up its mind on whether to implement the step plan or stick with the merit system and agreed to delay the decision until after the budget was approved.
Staff lobbied as much as it could to continue using the merit system with the caveat that the staff would be glad to go with whatever system the City Council approved. The Human Resources Department conducted a survey of the 1,100 employees who would immediately be affected by the council decision and 56 percent of the employees who responded stated a preference for the current merit system, only 22 percent were in favor the step system.
But despite what the employees wanted and despite the extra expense Councilmembers Hightower, Michelle Kennedy, Goldie Wells, Yvonne Johnson and Tammi Thurm voted in favor of the step plan.
In earlier discussions Thurm had spoken against the step plan and only agreed to support it with the caveat that next year the city could go back to the merit system. Tuesday evening Thurm added another caveat she said she was not in favor of extending the step plan beyond the estimated 1,100 employees who will be placed on the step plan this year.
During a budget work session Human Resources Director Jamiah Waterman explained that the estimated $100,000 in cost was for raises for employees. He said that all the employees on the same step will receive the same salary whereas now the salaries vary based on the merit raises employees have received. Because no city employee will have their salary reduced, all the employees being placed on the step plan will receive a raise, some more than others, so that all employees on the same step will receive the same salary. And going forward all employees on the same step will receive that same salary increases.
Why work hard when the lazy guy or gal down the hall does nothing and gets the same raises? This is the participation trophy of pay plans. Congratulations! Nancy has done it again.
Firmly agree Just Sayin. City jobs already have a reputation of being ‘easy jobs’ with little accountability. Everyone in management hates performance review season but it is an effective way to reward top performers and give notice to under performers. Guess management was jealous about the laziness and wanted in on the games as well.
These women are so out of touch with reality, it is not even funny.
What a bloody scam. What a subtle taxpayer rip-off. NO employee get a haircut, the scheme costs 100 Grand for starters, and the majority of staff don’t even want it!
The Parasitic Sector embodies greed and rapacity as they gouge the Productive Sector for ever more cash…. every year, every election cycle, every decade.
The Parasitic Sector has the power to extort money from the Productive Sector, and as we know, ‘Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.
Keystone Cops.
You think our govt was unresponsive before? Just wait and see what you get now.
despite what the employees wanted and despite the extra expense Councilmembers Hightower, Michelle Kennedy, Goldie Wells, Yvonne Johnson and Tammi Thurm voted in favor of the step plan.
Stoopid!
“One Term Thurm” is on the wrong side of another 5-4 vote.
So, if there is one accountant that makes $100,000 a year, and the others make anywhere from $60 to $85,000, now all of them will make $100,000 . Makes perfect sense to me….. March 2022 can’t get here fast enough
Y’all going to report anything about cone health requiring mRNA jabs for employees?
Everyone gets the same pay, regardless of how hard they work. These people are nuts.
Just a reminder that if your vote put these lazy liberals in office or by not voting this is the end result. Our country is heading into socialist equality. If your inclined to believe the B S. being promoted step pay is the answer. Take a paycut at work to insure equality if your up a step.
Exactly! Why doesn’t anyone see this as a Socialist way of thinking? Who are we benefiting… the lazy! Good luck.
And speaking of incompetence. Nuestros Amigos a Piedmont Natural Gas (Duke-Nation), don’t have enough sense to change my billing address. Two phone calls on my two lines, and 28 minutes later, I finally got an understanding of what I wanted. Maybe, we’ll see what happens next month. The two people I spoke with couldn’t receive or speak English well enough to be understood. The first put me on hold to get rid of me – a more common tactic now. They seemed totally incompetent, and un-educated.
This Country is crumbling from within.
Oh, yeah, I got my notice for a rate increase, somewhere around 11-12%. The Hazzards of Duke is having their own, too. Isn’t a total monopoly great?
The more incompetent the employees are the more irregular the decisions of management can be and get away with almost anything themselves. This will increase crime in Greensboro too.