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Compensation Study April 7, 2008 Page 2 Data sets The Personnel Manual indicates that wages shall annually be compared against wages of communities in the Stanton Group 6, which includes metro cities having populations between 10,000 and 25,000. The Council has expressed some concern that Stanton Group 6, because of the cities with populations in excess of 20,000, was not an appropriate data set against which to compare Mounds View wages. In 2006, a different group of cities were used for the Laumeyer study. The criteria used to select the communities was that the city would be approximately 50 miles from Mounds View, have a population between 9,000 and 14,000, and have a similar structure and tax capacity as Mounds View. This resulted in four “comparable” cities outside of the metro area (Hutchinson, Buffalo, Monticello and St. Michael) as well as three cities which did not have a police department (Arden Hills, Vadnais Heights and Little Canada) which would leave only three bona fide comparable communities—North St. Paul, Mound and Robbinsdale. In 2006 I suggested using a different data set with cities more in line with Mounds View. While the suggestion was not considered, this did form the basis of the third data set, the modified Stanton Group 6, which adjusted the population range from 9,000 to 19,999 and excluded cities that did not maintain a police department. This resulted in the following list of communities: CITY POPULATION Anoka 18,076 Columbia Heights 18,288 Farmington 17,495 Forest Lake 17,424 Hopkins 17,389 Lino Lakes 19,736 Mendota Heights 11,566 Mound 9,800 North St. Paul 11,776 Robbinsdale 13,698 Stillwater 17,929 West St. Paul 18,816 It should be noted that comparing the non-union salaries to Stanton Group 6 resulted in Mounds View wages being 6.7% LESS than the comparable cities. Lowering the population range from 9,000 to 19,999 resulted in Mounds View wages that are 7.7% LESS than the comparable cities.