The Human Resources and Information Technology Committee is meeting 10/26/2022 at 6:30PM.
The item on the agenda that is probably of the most interest to the public will be the discussion and vote on the request to approve alderpersons salaries. Staff has not made a recommendation one way or the other as to whether or not alderperson salary should be increased and has merely provided information on the aldermanic salaries in other cities as well as a history of aldermanic salary increases in Appleton. Any changes to aldermanic salaries approved before December 1st would only go into effective in April of 2024.
The committee will also be voting on a request to approve the non-union employee compensation program for Appleton employees. Associated with this item is the results of the Baker Tilly compensation study which was conducted earlier this year. Per the memo to the committee, “The intent of the compensation study was to make sure that positions in the organization [City of Appleton] remained market competitive and that pay practices were fair, equitable, and in compliance with state and federal laws.”
It looks like the committee will be receiving a summary of the findings of the study, although the agenda packet does not seem to include a PDF of the full study.
The agenda does also contain an information item that is, perhaps, only of interest to me. As of the end of this year, Appleton Housing Authority employees will no longer receive health, dental, long-term disability, and voluntary insurance plans through the City of Appleton but instead will be transitioning to vendors for those services.
Back on 12/16/2020, the Common Council voted on a Memorandum of Understanding to cover AHA employees through the end of 2022. The original MOU clearly stated that as of 12/31/2022, AHA’s participation in the City medical plan would conclude. This was because Appleton’s then Human Resources Director Sandy Matz had been concerned about the repercussions of the additional risk of having AHA members receive health coverage under Appleton’s plan and recommended that after 2022 they find their own coverage. During that Common Council meeting, then-Alderperson Kyle Lobner made a motion to strike the language stating that the at the end of 2022 AHA’s participation in the city’s medical plan would conclude. [Although this would not automatically extend their coverage beyond 2022, it did seem to be a jumping off point for continuing to cover them under the City of Appleton’s plan.] The Council approved that motion, and the language was removed from the MOU.
At the time, I tried to follow up with the Appleton Housing Authority to gain further insight into what factors prevented them from utilizing other insurance options and why maintaining coverage with the City of Appleton was so important because the reasons given for needing to stay with Appleton’s plan didn’t make much sense to me. They did not, however, respond.
It looks like that is now all water under the bridge because they will be dropping off of Appleton’s insurance plan at the end of the year.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1007226&GUID=FB747BAD-065F-46C2-8A7E-A0A8A7FBCE8D
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