The Plymouth City Council reviewed an ordinance Monday night that fixes the salaries of appointed officers and employees, fire and police personnel of the city for 2022.
All listed employees will get a three percent increase in pay. However, the airport manager will see an increase of five percent as well as the Human Resources manager.
Utility Superintendent Donnie Davidson asked the council to consider unique pay increases in his department.
Davidson stated, “When I’m competing with other employers that offer equal pay or even more pay it’s getting more and more difficult to attract and even retain my employees. On top of their routine work, I ask them to do a lot more to save the city money. The last [Guaranteed Savings] project in 2017 we saved over $300,000 with very little reward for the employees other than the satisfaction that we did it right, in my opinion. We’re always looking for ways of stretching our funds and get the most value as we possibly can while being as efficient as possible.”
He said the pay raises proposed will be able to be handled by the proposed utility budget, as reviewed by Eric Walsh from Baker Tilly.
Davidson said utilities operate in a fund outside of the General Fund.
On top of the three percent increase, Davidson proposed an additional $2.00 an hour increase to certain laborers, maintenance workers, GIS operator, and supervisors. The proposal would be $46,000 over the three percent increases in the Sewer Department budget and $33,000 in the Water Department budget.
City Councilman Jeff Houin asked where the process is in updating job descriptions for positions within the utility department to document specific duties to outline the reasons in the differences in pay. Davidson said he is working with City Attorney Sean Surrisi and the city’s HR representative to work on the job descriptions. They could be reviewed at the beginning of 2022.
The city council approved Davidson’s proposal and voted to amend the ordinance fixing salaries to reflect that update. The ordinance was adopted on third reading with a unanimous vote.
