Council discusses benefits, merit pay raises
By Rochelle Moore
Published in News on June 28, 2016 1:46 PM
City of Goldsboro employees now have the option to receive partially funded dental benefits or a gym membership following a decision by the Goldsboro City Council Monday.
The council discussed the option as part of follow-up discussions regarding the city's fiscal 2016-17 budget, which allocates $75,000 for the benefits.
Mayor Chuck Allen said earlier talks focused primarily on gym memberships as an incentive for employees.
"I think the theory was we were trying to give employees an incentive to go to a gym and get healthy," Allen said. "Personally, I think that's where it ought to stay. If we were going to do something, that was the whole intent of the conversation is the original money was trying to get our employees to be more active."
Councilman Gene Aycock said dental insurance coverage is just as important as exercise. Councilman Antonio Williams also thought employees should have a choice.
The council decided to allow employees the option to choose. No vote was taken, due to the money already approved within the 2016-17 budget. The benefit goes into effect in August, said Kaye Scott, Goldsboro finance director.
The new benefit involves the city paying half the cost, up to $25 per month, for either dental insurance or an area gym membership.
The city already offers dental coverage, but employees pay the full cost, said Scott Stevens, city manager. Individual employee costs are $21.54 for low coverage or $31.82 for high coverage dental plans per month. The costs are higher for additional family members.
Stevens also suggested that city employees be allowed to use city fitness centers, located at the W.A. Foster Center and Herman Park Center, at no cost. Employees now pay $50 per year to use the facilities, said Scott Barnard, Goldsboro Parks and Recreation director.
The council decided to waive the fitness center fee for city employees.
The city council also received a report from Faye Caviness, Goldsboro's human resources director, regarding the method in determining merit pay increases that went into effect in January.
In early June, Williams questioned the way previous merit evaluations were performed and said African-American employees received lower increases than the rest of the city's workforce.
Out of the 384 employees eligible for merit raises, 15 percent received a 3 percent pay increase, 38 percent received a 2 percent increase, and 47 percent received a 1 percent increase.
Caviness provided a racial breakdown of the raises, but said the method of evaluating employees includes performance during a certain time period, from October 2014 to September 2015, and is performed through NeoGov, an on-demand human resources software.
"We can't treat one group of individuals differently," Caviness said. "We currently have 89 raters in our system, and to have 89 different people rating individuals, no two evaluations are going to be the same, and no two departments are going to evaluate the same."
Out of the 132 African-Americans evaluated, 14 employees received a 3 percent merit raise, 38 received 2 percent, and 80 received 1 percent. Of the 244 Caucasian employees, 44 received 3 percent, 102 received 2 percent, and 98 received 1 percent.
Of the remaining eight employees, one received a 3 percent raise, four received 2 percent, and three received 1 percent.
Caviness pointed out Caucasian employees make up 64 percent of the city's workforce.
Williams disagreed with the raises, which he said favor certain employees over others.
"My problem that I saw is that I saw department heads that had 3 percent," Williams said. "I saw a lot of them. I saw not only African-Americans who didn't have any writeups or anything got 1 percent and who have been on their jobs for 20 years or longer. There's a problem somewhere. So, no, the system is not flawless, but we need to do something about it."
Williams was recently provided with a list of all city employees that listed their name and merit increase amount. The list, provided by the city manager, did not include a racial breakdown.
Stevens told Williams that city department directors are high performing and often work long hours. Unlike hourly employees, they do not receive overtime pay for the extra hours.
"For our department heads, I struggle not to rate most of them at 3 percent," Stevens said. "These folks work 60 hours a week, some of them put in 80 sometimes. Generally speaking the hours they give the city, they don't get back."
Councilman Mark Stevens asked if employees are evaluated based on their educational background. Caviness said no.
Other council members did not discuss the merit evaluation system, which stands as adopted in the city budget.
City employees will be evaluated this year and those eligible will receive merit pay increases in January. The city budget includes a 1 percent average in merit pay increases, estimated to cost $119,885.
The council also decided to set aside $30,000 into a contingency appropriation fund, with any spending decisions determined by the council at a later date. The funding comes from the city's downtown development business incentive fund and the facade grant fund. The two downtown funds will have $9,200 remaining for the fiscal year.
In other business, the council approved a $16,985 contract with the SP8 company for repairs and other renovation work to the pump room and lifeguard shelter at the Mina Weil Pool, located near the W.A. Foster Center, at 1012 S. John St. The pool will open following repairs, estimated to take three weeks, Barnard said.
The council decisions were made during the council's work session Monday.