图表Riggall
Marietta Daily Journal, Ga.
（MCT）
7月16日 - 三个月前，玛丽埃塔市议会通过了一项全面的薪水研究，官员们说，这将通过更好地标准化城市赔偿其员工来促进“内部股权”。
But this week, dozens of Marietta firefighters flooded the council chambers as retired members of the department, drafted as spokesmen, said the new policies have made salaries “highly subjective, inconsistent and unpredictable.”
Former Marietta firefighter Merv McDonald, who served 20 years, told council members “the results of the study have caused more concern than relief.”
Prepared by outside consultant Evergreen Solutions (costing the city $42,500), the pay plan laid out a broad salary range for each rank within the fire department.
例如，排名消防员每年支付45,019美元至70,425美元。根据城市经理比尔·布鲁顿（Bill Bruton）的说法，公共安全员工的开始工资增加了约9％。
McDonald said the plan didn’t put in place any means for determining where a firefighter lands in that $25,000 range.
“There is no objective method, no formula, no chart, no spreadsheet, etc., that is used to calculate individual salaries,” he said.
Adding to the problems, former employees said, are longstanding issues of compression, which occurs when new hires are making similar wages to experienced employees because the labor market has outpaced an employee’s raises over time.
McDonald said of three recent retirees from the department, none reached the midpoint of the salary range in their 20 years of service.
Ron Presley, another former firefighter, retired from the department April 1. When he stepped down after 20 years on the job, his hourly wage was $18.40. New hires, he said, are now coming in at roughly two dollars less per hour.
”消防队员,我们不开始e job for the money … You’re not going to get rich being a firefighter. We know that, we expect that, but I think the biggest problem is the compression issue,” Presley told the MDJ.
麦当劳告诉理事会，同样关于“消防队长确定每个人的薪水”。
麦当劳说，他代表消防局长蒂姆·米利根（Tim Milligan）报复的消防员发言，他控制了“自行决定”。麦当劳声称，一名消防员在试图谈判他的薪水后完全削弱了他的晋升。
Asked to respond, Milligan said Friday the minimum salaries are the baseline when the employee receives a promotion, and the department ensures their pay increases by at least 5% to match their peers. Raises are determined “in conjunction with Human Resources and the City Manager,” he said.
米利根在电子邮件中说：“在审查我们最近的20个促销活动时，该组中有近2/3的收入增长了5％以上。”“最后，如果收到增加的人最终会比同行小组中的某人增加更多，那么这些同龄人还将获得调整，以确保他们从被晋升的人中保持领先地位。”
On the compression issue, Milligan said, “We have done a lot of work to eliminate compression within our department, over the last several years, many pay adjustments have been made in an effort to solve this issue. The pay study did help us eliminate compression; at this time, those with more tenure receive a higher salary than those with less tenure.”
Coming during the public comment portion at the tail end of the meeting, council members and Mayor Steve Tumlin didn’t respond to the issues raised by McDonald and others. Tumlin couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.
Councilman Carlyle Kent, who chairs the council’s public safety committee, said this week’s meeting was the first he’d heard of the concerns.
“我认为每个人都很高兴和满足。在理事会会议上，这让我感到震惊。”他说。
Added Councilman Johnny Walker (the committee’s vice chairman), “I want to be totally fair to these guys. They’re the greatest. You know, we have the greatest public safety — fire and police department — in the state, and I want to make sure that they don’t go anywhere.”
沃克说，他尚不确定该部门的问题范围，但理事会在必要时会在薪水问题上再次通过。
“We’ve been good about not raising taxes, but public safety is very important in our city. I was all ears the other night,” he added.
Near the meeting’s end, perennial public commenter Don Barth demanded the council take action.
“你住在城市。您想要最好的，您为最好的钱付费 - 很简单。”玛丽埃塔居民巴特说。“…找到钱，并向他们付钱。来吧！”
___
(c)2022 Marietta Daily Journal, Ga.
Visit Marietta Daily Journal, Ga. at www.mdjonline.com
