Galesburg City Council chambers at City Hall.
Galesburg City Council voted down a contract to perform a classification, compensation, and organizational study for exempt and non-represented employees on Monday.
Voting no were Council members Larry Cox, Bradley Hix, Kevin Wallace and Wayne Dennis on the $31,000 contract.
Ward 7 Councilmember Cox says in December Council approved classification and compensation changes for six positions, and compensation was increased based on recommendations from the employee, department head, and city manager.
He thought that should be a model for studying these 47 employees in question.
Cox urged the council to vote no on this proposal and bring back a new proposal that would be less costly.
Ward 6 Councilmember Sarah Davis disagreed with Cox’s logic, saying that employees, if they know what fair pay would for their position is, are unlikely to ask their supervisors for it.
City Manager Gerald Smith said typically these kinds of studies are done every 6-7 years, but 35 years ago was the last time Galesburg did such a study.
Smith says a study is usually good for about 10 years and it allows cities to use baselines for comparison among jurisdictions.
Smith says it’s gotten tougher to recruit and retain employees because of so many exiting the workforce.
This study would only represent about 47 employees and doesn’t include collective bargaining employees.
Jaclyn Smith-Esters voted for the study saying we need to make sure that we’re being equitable and “avoiding liability”, saying “there could be lawsuits if we just do it internally.”
Mayor Peter Schwartzman says that one reason employees are leaving the city is other organizations actively recruiting them and offering more money.
Schwartzman noted that there is a cost to hiring new employees as well as a loss of institutional memory.
