Is that one that they bought this year?

Yeah.

Anyway, I sent you the tax statement on it.

They printed out the tax.

I was reading it.

They just say oh it's you know the taxes and readers.

Basically, after we go to that property, you're not going to be able to use the side.

Oh yeah.

So I can address it.

I don't care about the same actor, whatever the extra.

Yeah, possibly the list and why didn't you run?

I so they sent that out for that.

Yeah, but they have some they just have to put it in person for what we have to do.

Thank you.

That goes back to I don't know what that is.

I know, but whatever.

Okay.

So I would go through the purchase of the sort of work.

Oh, you not look at that.

I marked up the letter from where the side percent.

You know, marginal reinforcement get the check.

That way the seventy-five doesn't match up with the purpose.

Oh, that was the remoteable.

But it's that was the one that was when he was going to talk to you on the drive to do something and I said that because you shouldn't drive.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I guess it's not just number one.

And then I'll put it in the next one.

We can we can basically get reimbursed for what natural costs are.

Stuff related to it if they had something like five percent or something.

Yeah.

Yeah, so it's all right.

So you let's just do three.

Yeah.

Because that's how that was kind of problems.

Yeah.

So where you can get two boxes.

Joe Mayor.

Joe, when you're ready.

All right.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to the Eloy City Council work session.

Today is January twenty-sixth, twenty twenty-six.

The time is five PM.

Madam Clerk, may I have a roll call, please?

Councilmember Vander is excused.

Councilmember Curtis.

Here.

Vice Mayor Toringo.

Here.

Councilman Councilmember Snyder.

Here.

Councilmember Garcia is excuse me, he'll be here shortly.

Councilmember Galindo.

Here.

Mayor Sutton.

Here.

And can we kindly rise for the Pledge of Allegiance?

I'll lead it this time.

Do you recall it?

America.

All right, before we get going, are there any public appearances in the House?

I don't think so.

All right, let's go with the planned appearances in the House.

This will be for the carbon class study.

Yes, it is.

Um thank you, Mayor, members of council.

So tonight um we are we are doing a quick overview presentation of this year's compensation and classification study.

Um once again, um individuals in the group from HR and L are here to present with to you this some of the findings that have um come out of the study.

Um just to give you a recap, um the goal of the compensation study is to ensure that the city of Eloy maintains competitive, equitable, and physically responsible compensation structure that supports employee uh recruitment, retention, and continuity of services.

Yeah.

Sorry.

Um so tonight's discussion is informal.

Um we are going to come back to you um at the budget retreat with some uh figures to see what the compensation uh costs is going to be for the city.

Um but we are um we we are going to present tonight uh the number of positions that were uh reviewed and who are falling below market um uh at the hundred percent of which we all been at this point.

Um again, the mythology that um the consultants uh use is gonna be explained, and so they're gonna go over some more specific information about the study and the analysis and the results.

So of course we're here when you have any questions afterwards, but I'm gonna have them come up and get that started.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um market compensation study that we conducted for CGO Eloy.

Uh first of all, in the background, we were retained by CT to conduct this comprehensive market study.

And uh the study included comparing CT jobs pay ranges with relevant labor market uh similar pay ranges and aligned them if possible possible.

Um we uh define r relevant labor market as any organization, agency or even uh private or nonprofit organization or company that we switch CT competes and w where CT can lose its qualified talent or gain qualified talent from course uh uh all this study has been conducted collaboratively with UHR department.

And of course, all this study has been conducted collaboratively with UHR department.

The objectives were first of all to look at your pay structure and make sure that it should be aligned with minimum wage in Arizona and with labor market patterns and tendencies.

Then we look at competitiveness of CT of Illoy with pay ranges in the labor relevant labor market.

We also look at how to reassign jobs to pay grades based on both external competitiveness and internal equity within the city job classification structure.

We then look at individual pay and of course make certain recommendations.

We will go over this and wanted to make sure compliance with all relevant labor laws and employment loss in state of Arizona and Federal.

And we assume that because it's the same business model, which is a public sector organization and close proximity.

This is where potentially city can lose qualified talent and from which city may hire qualified staff.

That is the one of the major compilation of salary service in the United States.

And it's it's a professional basically database of all jobs.

And it allows us actually to narrow down salaries and ranges to specific area location and specific industry.

In this case, we wanted to take a look at public sector in around your radius and your proximity, and also look at uh similar jobs in all other industries.

We excluded ERI from valid from actual data collection.

However, we lose it just as validation point.

So if we see that just an example that your utility or water operator working for some other organization and uh some companies, uh utility uh entities making a large larger higher salary uh ranges, we wanted to know about that and we already validate, and that's why we use this additional source.

We collected the data from uh relevant labor market and uh again use location, industry, revenue size, and so on and so forth.

We collected minimum and maximum, tens, 90th percentile, and of course, median was our main control point, 50th percentile, because this is where average employee uh should be allocated.

We uh adjusted data as necessary, we aged it.

So if, for example, if uh data was collected three months ago, we and we project to another six months, we want to age the data and make sure that the data is current.

And then we uh uh uh decided to uh distribute all municipalities and uh public sector uh uh sources of data equally.

So there was no weight distribution difference between them.

Um we studied 61 jobs total out of 90.

There was no need to study all of 90 because some of the jobs were repetitive or redundant, like if you if you study accountant, there's no need really to study senior accountant.

Uh we can just apply uh kind of market benchmark differential.

And out of 61 jobs, we found that 25 jobs were below the labor market in their pay ranges from anywhere from 5% to 9.9%.

Another 25 jobs were below the labor market by 10% and more.

And if the job was within 5% plus minus 5% of the labor market, we consider this job being aligned and competitive.

Based on that, we updated the pay structure, and as you can see here the grades 101 to 125 separated by fixed 5% between them.

So that separation exists in case you have levels and you want to promote employee from one job to another, so it would be that we would maintain internal integrity of the structure.

That spread was determined based on relevant market patterns.

This is what usually the minimum, the employees with no experience get receive as a salary, and employees with high level experience or with extensive experience actually get to the maximum.

Usually 40% is typical for blue colour jobs and for clerical and support, and 50% wider range for professionals and management.

We wanted to keep it that way, and we think that this pay structure will serve your city very well.

In the end, we made recommendations first to adjust pay structure as necessary, and of course assign all jobs to pay grades based on labor market ranges, and also based on their internal relate current internal relationships.

So if just an example, if uh your senior accountant uh is separated by 10% from accountant, so senior account would be 10% higher in the range, and accountant would go up, we would move exact same proportionate movement uh increase for senior accountant.

In the end, we recommend 3 to 5% increases for your employees, and uh the details will be determined by the leadership NHR department, but our rationale for that is shown in this next slide.

First of all, you can see that normally cost of living expressed in consumer price index, CPI.

At that time at the time of the study, and at the end of the year was 3%.

Later it was actually determined that it went down slightly.

The core CPI is indicator of the same consumer price index, the same inflation, excluding two major components, food and energy.

And PCE is the component indicator that we usually look at.

This is actually personal consumption index.

So if uh just an example in 2022, when uh CPI or inflation was 8%, this the PCE and uh technically what employees actually spent, how much they spent, went up only 4.5%.

We also tracked ECI, you can see the first two bars, and ECI is employment cost index.

If CPI is uh increase in wages in uh sorry, in uh uh cost of goods and services, ECI indicator tracked by Bureau of Labor Statistics is increasing salaries.

So it's basically inflation of wages, benefits, and payroll.

And uh essentially in 2025, average employee, civilian employee in the United States received 3.6% increase.

For us, it was indicator, and uh we thought that uh 3 to 5% was appropriate based on that.

We use ECI more than we trust CPI than inflation.

For that reason, you can see the next slide, the blue line actually show inflation from uh last 12 years tracking uh anywhere from uh basically zero in uh 2015, 0.2 to 8.3 in 2022.

You see that uh inflation is very volatile, goes up, goes down, and uh it doesn't always reflect what is actual salary growth in the United States for labor force uh is experienced.

And that you can see we call cost of wages, again captured by ECI.

Uh yellow, yellow line here, you can see it's more fixed, more stable, less volatile, and it's on average for the last few decades was three percent.

Lately it was more, 4.2 and 4.5 and 4%, and you can see, and now even though labor markets are cooling, but because it's 3.6% now, but because uh the uh 25% of your jobs, actually, sorry, 25 jobs were found way below the labor market, we recommended increases from 3 to 5 percent to uh not only to increase employee wages, but also adjust those employees who were in those jobs that fall below the labor market.

That concludes our presentation about methodology and framework or compensation study.

Do we have any questions from council on what we just heard?

Questions?

Go ahead, sir.

Uh back to the previous slide where you had the uh inflation versus uh yes.

If you look at uh earning power, or you know, I'm looking at uh this shows the cost of inflation and the cost of uh their wage increases.

But if you had, I'm just thinking out loud here, if you had the big increase in uh inflation back in 22-23, the wages didn't really pick up to support that.

But even though the uh cost of living is dropping, those costs are still there.

They haven't come down.

So what if you look at these this graph, what happens if you look at uh earning ability versus you know, I'm take home versus you know where I'm coming from?

Uh yes, we typically uh like uh in fact I just read the latest uh labor statistics report this morning, and uh what they suggest is the real wage increases.

Those are average wage increases like you suggested, but but when you adjust it for inflation, this year it was 1.1%.

So what it means is that you take the wage increases, you take away the inflation, and what's left is there.

And you're absolutely right, those years, 22-23, uh, there was a gap between earnings and inflation.

The gap wasn't that big though, because just because CPI was 8.3%, that does not mean that employees spent 8.3% more.

That's why we tracked this PCE indicator, personal consumption index.

Still they spent more than what they earned.

So you you're right there.

Anybody else have anything like to add?

Go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just to confirm what I thought I heard.

So you said we have 25 jobs out of those that you reviewed that are way below market.

I thought just was it last year, we tried to make sure that all of those jobs were did the outside market increase that much in the past year that we have 25 that are that far below now?

It actually was uh three years ago.

Time flies on the style, we did study for in 2022, and uh and you you're right, time flies very fast.

But market was very dynamic this time.

And especially some of the blue collar jobs, they grew faster than professional jobs.

And the reason being is they're just not enough talent out there, and everybody needs them.

Uh especially your public works, utilities, uh water uh and uh uh jobs that require technical knowledge.

That's unfortunate, but yes, 25 jobs found to be 10% below the market.

Plus, you have very uh very dynamic market next door.

Uh I mean Phoenix, they they bring old wages in Casa Grant and Queen Creek, they bring them up very quickly.

uh water uh and uh uh any jobs that require technical knowledge that's unfortunate but yes 25 jobs found to be 10% below the market plus you have very uh very dynamic market next door uh I mean Phoenix they they bring old wages in Casa Grant and Quinn Creek they bring them up very quickly the other question I have is it seems like if we increase uh percentage to get people up to level with the dynamic you're talking about next door and now with uh Santan Valley incorporating which is gonna put more pressure on all these cities it seems like maybe we ought to be looking at going a little bit higher because recognizing that a year two years from now we still want to be competitive but all we're doing is catching up and so just your thoughts on what impacts Santan Valley and uh because everybody's looking after the same people you know which it's like free agency out there if you're really good well you absolutely are the um any time you have new entity it happened with Queen Creek when they started hiring police officers we heard about people losing to Quinn Creek from Flax staff or all the way through the Phoenix Valley every time there's new entity they need to bring people in the only way to do that is bring offer more so that's why we're giving you range from three to five percent of your payroll and whatever you can spare would be certainly helpful to your to your staff and it would be probably a long term good decision because if you don't lose your people you don't spend money on turnover plus productivity and I mean you're losing not only staff you you're losing um institutional knowledge especially again in in those blue collar technical jobs so we would recommend that uh whatever possible if you can find resources hold your staff yes retention is very important to this city especially in those blue collar positions because there's not many people out there doing that kind of work right now and the ones we have know where everything is I don't have to tell them where something is located they they already know well anybody else have any questions Joe go ahead.

I know it's early when are we going to know like an approximate percentage of how much benefits are going to increase this year.

I know that's usually still a few months out but because I know how it is I've worked for the government forever.

Oh yeah we're getting two and a half three percent but our insurance is going up even more so I want to make sure that we and you always have Sylvia but I want to make sure we're paying attention to that because if that's going to eat away at every increase we have you're still going to go to Santan.

We can we can uh tell you our experience because we're already um had this cost analysis with some of our clients and uh insurance will grow double digits we might uh our firm my firm we provide health insurance and uh my health insurance increased double digits uh 20 percent and and I think that that's not higher than anybody else's pay so this is unfortunate I don't have good news for you so I I guess I do have a quick comment so I mean is there like any kind of balance between you know the work environments compared to like the work salary because if you're if you're chasing employees because they're chasing the money I mean they're not gonna have an investment in the services that they're providing anyway because they're just chasing the money.

Well you know I know that one of the things that the the city of Velo has done is they they have a really robust uh employee appreciation committee that goes out and does things for uh the employees to make them feel appreciated and acknowledged and you know I I know the the bottom line is money you you know you you want to pay get paid what you're worth and stuff but I you know I'm about to uh celebrate almost 30 years with Pineau County and it hasn't been for the money you know it's been the quality of work the people I get to serve and you know the the opportunities that it's given me and stuff so I mean I I'm sure that that in in your analysis it really does that kind of come in in any way do you is that measured in any way?

Well what you're saying is shown in dozen of different research that uh money is not the uh number one, actually not even number two reason uh for uh employees leave in the organizations.

Number one reason why by start is is uh supervision.

Relationship with superiors, like you said, relationship with the team, um the uh feeling of engagement, feeling of uh belonging, and so on so forth.

Um but our job was to provide you with a good read of the labor market, and that's what we did.

The rest is up to you, your leadership UHR department, and I'm I'm sure they do a great job creating this environment where employees are being motivated and not the don't feel left left out and um that's uh that's good about what we hear about uh C2 Fuelo uh this goes back to I think the all the job classifications and where you had the gap between I'm just thinking wow is having been in situations like this, once someone becomes uh three five year employee, they become a little bit more valuable than somebody with a one or two-year employee because they've already got some of the training and recontribute.

So it seems that you should try to make your uh wages for those people a little bit higher, so there's more incentive for those people not to look around because you've already got so much money invested in.

So in our scale from a low uh grade to a high grade, do we have enough differentiation between the bottom and the top it to actually uh be sure we keep those uh long-term employees?

That that is exactly why we uh uh uh chanking and very fine labor market bandwidth, spread of the range.

So for example, if I may show you back uh the so over here, if you can see just an example of green weight.

Um the less experienced employees or new employees start will start with 21 dollars thirty-two cents.

But once they grow uh their experience and and uh uh the uh gain more knowledge on the job, they have to progress faster to midpoint.

And that's what we in in wage progression models, we always recommend that you bring them to meet point faster um than possible.

Once they're at the meetpoint, you can slow down their growth, but they still have to grow.

And that spread, 40% is enough for blue-collar jobs, and 50% is enough for as long as you use it appropriately, as long as employees with uh good extensive experience can get to sixties or seven years percentile.

In this case, basically your midpoint, the way we assign uh jobs to people, the midpoint represents 50 percentile, meaning average employ average accountant would be in uh I don't know, your grade uh let's say one ten.

The average accountant would be 20 28 dollars.

But if you already skilled accountant with extensive experience, you should be higher than that.

Anything else from counsel?

Okay, thank you, sir.

Thank you.

So um I I did want to um uh mention your uh address your question about the health insurance.

Um we have met um with our broker, uh we are already getting preliminary numbers.

Um nothing is set in stone, but uh Igor's correct the the increase is is projected to be um higher even though we have a great rate uh return.

We uh we had a great year, like always.

Um but that's just the market, that's just what's happening out there in healthcare.

So we're waiting and see everything's being like that, and um, we're hoping that our amazing um broker uh can come through again and bring us at something that's very at least and we're hoping to single uh digits, but we'll we'll have to wait and see.

We'll know in the next 30 to 45 days.

You're nothing worse than getting them pay rates just get eaten up and you're taken home less.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yes.

Uh we we we try real hard to prevent that.

So I'll say I worked for the Eloy, you know, for a long time.

When you're young, you don't think about health benefits.

And you get older and you do.

And I'll tell you, Eloy really needs to sell our benefits because now working for the county.

Absolutely.

That is the number one.

That is my number one pitch.

A matter of fact, I'm having that conversation today.

And my number one pitch is um the ability to to especially those that are in the closer surrounding communities, that they don't have to drive to the valley, they don't have to go to Tucson.

We are this close.

And our benefits, I sell, sell, sell, sell, sell our benefits.

It's with some of the best in the state, and any one of our brokers will tell you that we have one of the richest plans when you have a thousand dollar maximum out of pocket for a family, that's unheard of in this day and age and in the state of Arizona.

And we sell that like you have no idea.

Or at least I do.

So yeah.

It's six thousand for family with Pinau.

That's average.

Yeah, and that's not uncommon.

That that is the average.

And even though the you know you may only pay $30 um a pay period, where versus let's where family you're paying, you know, a couple hundred dollars a month, um, your maximum out of pocket you will reach, and that includes prescriptions, that includes doctor visits, you're gonna reach that in 30 days with a family.

And so um, yeah, we I really throw that as a selling point.

And and I usually get it because when you when you look at the two, um it's a huge I'll give you, I always say this as a prime example of myself.

Even as long ago, 28 years ago when I started with the city, I worked at a uh school district, and I took a four dollar an hour cut to come to Eloy, but net I was making more money because of the insurance benefits, and I always give that example.

So completely understand.

Thank you, Sylvia.

Anyone else have any questions?

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

So with nothing else on the agenda, is that a wrap, Sil?

All right.

Another questions or statements.

We're going to adjourn and come back here in 26 minutes.

Thank you, everybody.

Huh?