06-23-2025 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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STAFF REPORT TO:Mayor Fischer and Members of the City Council FROM:Heidi Heller, City Clerk/HR Manager DATE:June 23, 2025 RE:Compensation for Assistant City Administrator/Community Relations Manager Working out of Class ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED Consider approval of additional compensation to the Assistant City Administrator/Community Relations Manager for working out of class during the absence of a City Administrator. BACKGROUND The previous city administrator’s last day with Little Canada was March 1, 2025. Laura Linehan, Assistant City Administrator/Community Relations Manager, was appointed as the acting City Administrator beginning on March 3, 2025. At the time of the appointment to acting Administrator, no additional compensation was given to Ms. Linehan for the additional duties. A new city administrator has now been hired and will be starting on June 30, 2025. Ms. Linehan has held the Acting City Administrator role for four months and city staff agrees that she has done an outstanding job. Several unique issues have arisen during this time that required her to fully assume the City Administrator role. Many cities have a compensation policy for employees who temporarily work outside of their job classification. Little Canada has done this in the past during the transition of planning and code enforcement staff, and for absences in the Parks and Public Works Departments. The additional compensation for employees working out of class has been handled in two different ways: either 10% added to their current pay rate or pay at step 1 of the pay grade of the job that is being assumed. Due to the quantity of high level of work that has been required of Ms. Linehan during the past four months, staff recommends that she be paid at Step 1 of Grade 15 (City Administrator), retroactive to March 3, 2025 and running through June 27, 2025. Compensating at Grade 15 is $2.97 more per hour than if 10% was added to her current pay rate. Note that Grade 15 was amended by Council on March 26, 2025 in order to make that pay grade more competitive for the administrator recruitment, but staff is recommending that Ms. Linehan be paid at be the Grade 15 wage scale that was in place prior to the amendment. Ms. Linehan also requested to use the pre-March wage scale. FINANCIAL IMPACT The total financial impact of staff’s proposed rate of Step 1 at Grade 15 is approximately $5,800, or the impact of 10% added to her current pay rate would be approximately $3,800. There has been quite a bit of salary savings so far this year due to employee turnover and extended leaves of absence. RECOMMENDATION Approve the additional compensation at Step 1 of Grade 15 for Laura Linehan, Assistant City Administrator/Community Relations Manager, who was working out of class as the Acting City Administrator from March 3 to June 27, 2025.