Human Resources & Information Technology Committee - Regular Meeting

Good evening. It is 07:50PM, and I am calling to order this meeting of the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee for Wednesday, September 10. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Roll call of membership starting on my left, please.

Adrienne Stanson Martin, District 11.

Baya Jones, District 10. Sherri Es Hartzheim, District 13.

Patrick Hayden, District 7.

Nate Wolfe, District 12.

Thank you very much. We move on to our approval of minutes from the previous meeting, item number 20 five-ten 58 from 08:27.

Motion to approve. Second.

We have a motion and multiple seconds. Do we have any discussion, changes? There being none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? That is approved, five-zero. We have no public hearings or appearances so we'll move on to our action item that is item number 20 five-one thousand and one, request the approval of older person salaries. This is an open ended item. There is nothing there has been no motion on the table. It is out here for us to perhaps make any kind of recommendations. Alder Woolf.

Thank you, Chair. I'd like to make a motion to match employee salaries increases.

We have a motion on the table.

Do we need to specify what that percentage is?

Yeah. In the year 2027. Right?

Okay. So

Director Raschmann.

Okay. Thank you, Chair. So salaries for 2026, first of all, we don't have a budget established, I don't know what those will look like. If you're saying you just simply want to match 2027, whatever that is, whether it's zero or it's 10%, is that what you're referring to?

Correct. Yes.

Are we able to do that, Director Ashby?

That certainly would be different. Think I would need to check with legal on we're supposed to actually establish the salary because if someone's taking out papers, they need to know what that salary is that they're putting in for.

So we have a motion on the table. Do we have a second? There is no second, so that motion fails. Do we have any other discussion or a motion?

Alder Woolf? Before we do that, Chair or if I could ask the Director to specify details we went over two weeks ago, our three options I believe we had, and specifically what those were. Maybe I'm just

Chair, with your permission, if I could just share a little bit more

Yes, in please. Addition to

I think now that we have the full committee.

Please in

your packet, you have three documents. And I want to talk a little bit about

Yes, Is

that a little bit better? Still light?

Doctor. Inlav, what do you have next to you there? Give that a shot.

Okay. Is that better?

Yes.

Okay. Thank you. So in your packet, have three documents. You have a letter from the assistant city attorney, which I'll spend just a few minutes going through. You have the history of the elder person's salary increases for the city of Appleton.

And then you have comparable data from other communities. So before I get into the letter, I just want to remind the committee, which ultimately will go to counsel, is that you're voting on compensation for future elder person terms, so not terms for anyone who's currently an elder person. The other thing is that the role of HR, which is a little bit different than when we bring other compensation forward, we're bringing forward information for the committee to make the decision. It's not really a recommendation. It's really up to the committee and counsel to establish the wages.

So if you go to the letter from the attorney, a couple of things I want to point out is the current salary is set at $6,750 annually. And then to the question of, like, what options does the committee and the council have? You have two options. One is you can have staggered salaries, which basically means half the council is making one salary in 2026, April 2026, and the other half of the council would make a different salary in April 2027. Or you can do a single adjustment, which is all council members have the same salary in April 2027.

From an historical standpoint, you have really stayed with the single adjustment. So all council all older persons are on the same salary and then also as a reminder I think this is important especially as it gets the council we need majority vote at committee but ultimately at council it needs three fourth three fourths of all members of the council to have approval. So does that I hope that answers your question.

Yes, very much so. If I may?

You may.

I would like to make a motion to go with a single adjustment. At the standard rate at which we had been going up at, which I don't like an average of what we usually increase supply, which I don't know, if I'm being honest.

Alder Krott, what mic do you have?

Thank you. My question is for the director, if I may. When does this have to be finalized by? Because we're getting close to budget season and to his First Amendment attempt tying it to a city employee increase. We don't know the number yet. You may know the number, but we don't know the number yet. I'd be curious to know I probably wouldn't support that, but I'm interested in that measure because I think I made the comment at the last HR IT committee meeting that I would support the flat rate or is everybody on the same, but also looking at what the city employees are getting?

So if I could just give a little history. So first, to answer the question, December 1, so we have time. Why did we bring it so early in the game? That was really the direction I was given, was to bring it October August, because this item tends to get held, sometimes goes to counsel, gets referred back to committee. And we wanted to make sure or I think council members wanted to make sure that we had plenty of time. But December 1, that is when we would have to have approval if there should be a change for future alderperson compensation.

So what I'm hearing is, if someone was interested in waiting until we learn what the budget includes, that would still be ample time to take this up?

Yes. Okay. Thanks.

Thank you, Director Ashman. Are you stating that December 1 would be required approval by the full council?

Correct.

Okay. Thank you. Alder Woolf, would you like to expound further upon your potential motion?

Apologies, everyone. So it was all the same. I'll just state that and preemptively thinking about this. It's not too important to me one way or another how this goes, but I figured we should try to keep up with other municipalities, which is why it's been a little sloppy. I'm sorry for that. So I will say we could wait unless someone else had a motion that they would like to go with.

Motion to hold until the next

We haven't resolved the initial motion. Is there a second? There's none. We have a motion to hold. Is there a second? I'll move to hold. But could we please clarify when you would like to hold?

To the next scheduled safety or not safety and licensing HRAT meeting.

I will second that but I would like discussion on

that. Okay.

My concern in that regard is that we're still facing the the budget season at the October. So if we keep pushing this off every two weeks, we will wait until the Safety and Licensing Committee takes four hours, and then we So will try to meet if we could please, could we look further at the calendar to determine when, for instance, when is budget Saturday? Do we have that information?

I have it on my calendar. Alder Krug?

Oh, I don't have the date, but I was I was just gonna suggest that it may not be necessary to wait until we get into the budget process because once we get the budget from the mayor, we'll know what the proposed increase for employees is.

Right. But do we know what that date is?

Oh, usually at the end of this month.

Alder Ferguson, what mic do you have? District 9? 10. 10. Sorry.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Budget Saturday will be November 1. It is always the last Saturday before the budget public hearing, which is before the first council meeting of November.

Okay. And by your recollection, at what point in time are we usually, as council members, in receipt of a preliminary budget?

The budget should be in our hands on October 1, which is the first council meeting of October. It is always submitted to the council at the first council meeting of October.

Okay. That being said, Alder Jones? Yes. Would you be interested in holding this item till October 8?

October 8.

I would agree to holding this item until the scheduled HRIT meeting on October 8.

So you are amending your motion?

I am amending my motion to

hold I will amend my second as well. Is there discussion on this hold? Alder Hayden.

Thank you, Chair. I would be against holding this. At some point, have to make a decision. I think even without hearing what the salaries are, I think we can have a rough idea. A standard raise, I would venture to guess, is probably between 2% to 3%. We can probably split the difference and make a motion to do a 2.5% raise that should be in line with what the city employees are going to receive. I don't think we have to get an exact percentage. If I'm incorrect, Director Rachman, if you could correct me.

Sure. Again, in regards to non rep salary increases, I mean, you're spot on. We're talking anywhere from 2% to 3%. But until there's a full budget in front of the mayor and we identify the gaps, I can't commit to what that salary would be. It just would be premature for me to even comment on what that'll look like. But you are correct. That's kind of the range we've been throwing out there. We do not have a budget to present, however.

Thank you. We need to resolve the motion to hold yet. So do you have further discussion in that regard?

Yes, I do. If we are willing to vote against the motion to hold, I would be willing to submit a motion to actually resolve this item. So I would recommend that we vote against the motion to hold, so that we can actually move forward with this business.

Further discussion on the motion to hold?

Yes, please.

Alder Jones. I

this is a contentious issue every year, and I just worry that we did have a very long safety and licensing committee meeting. It was very it was a lot. I feel like we're a bit more flippant about this meeting than we should be. I feel like we need more information and need to be more prepared. So while, yes, we can knock something out, I worry that we're not doing our best work by just doing it tonight. Thank you. Alder Woolf?

I hear your concerns. However, that was much of last committee meeting as well. And the next committee as well will be another late one, as it seems. So I do think we should proceed and if there are issues at full council, someone can always send it back.

Alder Woolf's concern would actually be addressed by pushing this to October 8 as the motioner has made the motion to hold. Is there any further discussion on the motion to hold? There being none, all those in favor of holding until October 8 meeting of the HRIT Committee, please signify by saying aye. Aye. How many votes do we have there? We have two. That motion did not pass. Moving on. Alder Hayden.

I would like to make a motion for a single adjustment of salaries in the amount of 2.5%, which comes to $168.75 And

I

think that's all that you need, correct, Director Achin?

Just a single adjustment, just to clarify. So that would be for April 2027? That's correct, sir. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Do we have some discussion?

Can you did you do the numbers? Got a Clarification.

The actual fixed dollar amount was $168.75?

That's correct. That's what I came out with, 2.5% of the current salary.

Just as a point of clarification, my understanding is that it has been most effective in avoiding points of confusion to approve the new salary rather than approving a specific rate increase. So my understanding and not a math guy. Otherwise, I probably would have gone to that school. Yes. Think it would be most helpful to probably term the motion to approve the salary for the twenty twenty seven April twenty twenty seven term as $6,918.75

Alder Hayden, would you like to amend your motion?

I'm willing to amend it.

Do we have a second amended as well?

Second.

Any other discussion by the committee? Alder Stanson Martin? Alder Jones? Any of the other alders present? There being no further discussion, all those in favor of an increase in salary for all aldermen effective April 2027 to a total of 6,918.75 per year, Please signify by saying

aye. Aye.

Opposed? Abstentions? That motion has passed, five to zero. We have one information item, 20 Five-ten61, the recruitment status report. Does anyone have any questions or concerns? Or Director Rachman, would you like to bring anything up for us?

So we've had several meetings in a row, so really nothing of substance that I would point out, but happy to answer questions.

Thank you. Anybody? There being none, can move on to item number eight. Move to adjourn.

Second.

Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you.

Are you good?