City to spend $220,000 researching employee salaries

I understand that the citizens of Wilmington will be conducting their own study on October 9th.

I was also told that the only cost to the taxpayers for this study is a trip to the voting booth.....although it is possible a pink slip or two could be handed out based on the results.

How much money does the City spend on Consultant Studies?

I'm sure it totals in the millions each year, and the reason is always PURE POLITICS.

The Consultant provides whatever answer the Council, the source of the very large consultant's fees, wants. They know the Council's position and the consultant's job is to write a report that provides support for that pre-determined outcome.

Then the politicians hold up the consultant's report, which none of them have read, and say: "See the outside consultants said it's a good idea."

The Council wanted to build a convention center, so they went out and hired a consultant to write a report saying it would be great. The Consultant was selected because they did the same thing for other city's, always making the case FOR a convention center (and always wrong, mind you!).

The City Council paid millions for a "Study" to justify forming a Sewer Authority. Not to study if it was a good idea, but to tell the City how to do it. Only in the small print does it note that the cost to form an Authority is higher than the cost to maintain the status quo.

This is just another case of Saffo, Quinn, Padgett, Sheridan and the good ole boys using taxpayer money to fund a Study for their own political ends.

The result, next year the Report will state what we already know: salaries are too low!

This will be their excuse to raise taxes.

From what I have read the mayor and the council rewarded Mr. Mediocre and Mr. Incompetent at the last meeting; now they need to hire someone to tell them how to stick it to the hard working, qualified people that are left to do the job. The chamber of commerce, convention center board, and downtown inc. have all shown outstanding abilities to screw things up.

SOUNDS LIKE A DEAL TO ME.............MAYBE WE NEED A CONSULTANT TO CONSULT ON WHAT'S FREE ??? OR MAY BE JUST STOP SPENDING MONEY ON THINGS WE EXPECT OUR CITY OFFICIALS SHOULD DO ??? WHAT ARE THEY DOING ,,,,WHY DON'T THEY HAVE TIME....

SOUNDS LIKE A DEAL TO ME.............MAYBE WE NEED A CONSULTANT TO CONSULT ON WHAT'S FREE ??? OR MAY BE JUST STOP SPENDING MONEY ON THINGS WE EXPECT OUR CITY OFFICIALS SHOULD DO ??? WHAT ARE THEY DOING,,,,WHY DON'T HAVE TIME....

I feel your pain people, but has anyone went to a council meeting and complained?
Please go to city council meeting next time and complain!

I work for a town that completed a MAPS study. I must it was a good thing in the end. Everyone got classified accordingly and my salary did increase. So, its not a bad idea to do the study. But, the city must act on the results of the study and not sit on it.

I think its a little ridiculous to say that city employees don't know what they are doing. I'm not saying that everyone is an all-star at their job, but you can go to any business no matter if its public or private and find people who don't perform as well as someone in that position should. That's life. And my other concern is that apparently you know exactly what every employee's job responsibilities are seeing as how you said that they don't know the answers to questions they should. If you are so omniscient why don't you apply and work for the city? I think it is important that the city makes sure they are properly paying city employees seeing as how the job market sucks in Wilmington and will not get better until the area can provide sufficient jobs to keep people here instead of forcing them to move to Charlotte or Raleigh in order to be able to survive. As a soon to be college graduate, I have searched high and low for a good job in Wilmington and let me tell you, they are few and far between. So if you would like to keep educated people in Wilmington and our economy healty, maybe evoking an interest in the public sector in terms of employment might be a good idea. Granted $220,000 is a lot of money, but google some consulting firms and you'll find our pretty quick that a research study is not cheap. Even if the information is free and you can find it yourself, do you really think that the citizens of Wilmington would be satisfied when they ask why suddenly all the City employees' salaries doubled and the response they get is "we conducted an internal study and it showed that our employees are underpaid and need more money to survuve based on living costs and compensation received by other cities." Hell no they wouldn't be satisfied. Paying an OUTSIDE firm to do it is the seal of approval that the results are in fact a FACT. Why do you think that corporations are now required to have external accountants? Because Enron screwed it up and so now Accounting is one of the most available jobs out there. No one likes it when things get done behind closed doors. At least after this study people can't go around ranting about the "overpaid city people" if that's not really the case. People need to stop complaining about everything when you don't take the time to review all the facts before coming to an educated and competent opinion. I don't know for sure that the city is run by idiots but it's plain to see that we have enough of them living in Wilmington to exceed the necessary quota of village idiots.

If youre not a part of the solution, There's good money to be made Prolonging the Problem.

Cmon Saffo.... Are you kidding me?

$220,000 to conduct a study on salaries? I looked it up in 10 minutes on the internet. Everyone already knows Firefighters, and Police Officers deserve more pay. They are all heroes in my mind. Give them a pay raise now and stop the bollux.

This is another example of his poor judgment skills and lack of ability to handle even the most simple of monetary decisions.

Who is conducting the study anyway? That's what I’d like to know. Has anyone checked that out?

I have a better idea. Take the $220,000 and buy new iMacs for the kids at schools around the city. I bet the children would be so happy they would conduct the study for free. It would also serve as a great civics lesson that you could not put a price tag on. They would learn how their future tax dollars will go to waste if we continue to accept such incompetent leadership.

OK we've established that those who run this city are incompetent idiot money wasters. The next step is getting rid of them. I'll do Cheatham's job, better than he does, for $50,000 a year. I'll do this study on my own, probably at home in a few hours while watching TV, and we'll spend this $220,000 on something worthwhile, NOT Cape Fear Soccer or Convention Centers, but things that actually benefit citizens here.
Seriously, none of these fools will ever get my vote. You folks on the City Council make Ricky Meeks look like a hero!

what a waste of my tax money does anyone in city council read the star news this study has already been done by usa today and another organization specificially on wilmingtons salarys they are low ranked lowest in the nation ,they dont match the cost of living star news posted this survey it was on the front page . 220,000 dollars all they had to do was call each city and request a copy of salary for the specific job that dont cost 220,000 dollars some phone calls and some documents if needed .wow i would have rather the city bought 220,000 dollars in lottery tickets .what a waste the survey has already been done star news posted that on the front page .

I think this is just another case of the council showing their stupidity. Spending that
kind of money on a study? All they need to really do is open their own eyes and put that
money towards the much deserved pay increases
instead of coming back later after deciding on the raises and wondering where the money will come from. Raising our taxes?

Pay me $220,000.00 and I will tell you all day long your a bunch of dang idiots. OMG Wilm is run by idiots !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That makes as much sense as hiring the Japanese to tell you how to run your production business at the same kinda expense...only for your company to go back to the old ways of how they "did it" after they leave and go back home.
Funny how they found this $ to pay out for someone to tell them what to do.
Maybe the same "study group" should tell them how to become "Real City Councilors".

Thanks on behalf of accounting firms that perform these types of "studies." The city of Wilmington has blessed the business in the last few years with these studies.

As an employee that researches the information it is even easier these days due to the internet and the information age. Obviously, those that can't pay! And pay well.

So I'll give my thanks and huge amount of appreciation to the Wilmington City council as I'm sure the builders of the area do all the time.

(By the way, who's family on the council is connected to the firms that do these "studies"? This ais a question worth asking.)

Since Bill, Jim, and Sterling don't have a clue as to what to do, or where to start, but know the answer they want to hear; they are going to find someone who will take their answer and develop a "plan" to fit it.

There is occasionally a valid need to hire consultants on technical projects, but this isn't one of those cases. A sharp high school senior could do this study.

We may be seeing politics at its most arrogant and corrupt. We may have a first-hand example of how incumbents milk the system. The "study" will likely be awarded to the cronies or old college buddies of the mayor or city council, who will then 'just coincidentally" write a big campaign check.

SIGH - waste, waste, waste. If they PAID enough, they wouldnt HAVE to recruit from the outside. Granted he didnt SAY 'outside' but isnt that implied? Do you really consider the local workforce as 'recruits'? Cheatem was recruited from the outside....so obviously his payscale was already competitive, wasnt it?Wonder how much the study cost to determine HE needed this raise to "remain competitive"?!? Hmmmm...

Were the firefighters paid for THEIR study?!!? How about throwing a hundred thousand their way and let them divvy it up? Better yet, sell the fire stations and park the trucks at the soccer complexes and house the firemen in the convention center hotel and hook up the hydrants up to the sewage system.

My guess is the purpose of the study will eventually turn into another excuse to raise our taxes and Mr. Saffo is stalling so he doesnt have to take that blame. He wastes $200k CLAIMING he was doing something about it. Next guy in has to actually DO something - if it fails, well Saffo can say he knew better. If it succeeds, well it WAS his idea and initiative that started it, right? Is it not an election teaser?
Politics never change....it is a shame hard-working citizens constantly have to take the hit for our inefficient, indecisive, irresponsible, elected representatives. HOWEVER, if folks REALLY cared, they wouldnt be in office in the first place.

I hate to harp on this, but once again our TV screens are graced with over weight WFD firemen. Come on guys! we all love ya but you all need to be backing that butt up to the YMCA not the KFC!

Soon the city planning dept is gonna have to require larger window openings in homes for rescue operations.

If you guys can get to down to a dept wide BMI of 26 or less I'll personally lobby the city council to get you all a raise.

You can look up this information at citytowninfo.com and finish this report in about 3 hours. That is equal to $73,333.33 an hour. You folks in Wilmington need to bring this to the attention of your leaders, find out who is stealing this money of yours, and shoot them. End of story.

It's a shame the city council really thinks they need a study to figure out pay raises. And these are supposedly business people? How much of their personal money do they give away for studies in their businesses? Amazing. If they have this much to throw away why not divide it up between city personnel and give them a bonus? They didn't listen to the "study" to replace the fire chief so why go in this direction at all? Folks, remember this on election day. There also should not be any voting on the convention center till after the election.

This is just another of our council projecting their lack of wisdom in coming up with a study to check on other cities salaries.....and then turn right around and give a pay raise to three of the people who "run" our city before the study. Anyone with any intelligence could do this simple study and save the city (i.e. citizens) the 220,000.00 and put it somewhere it's needed.....like salaries. The firemen have been working under unfair conditions that are created by a political group,understanding that any complaint will result in finding some "reason" to be fired, and have not been given raises in years. We have some great men and women who risk their lives every day to help keep us safe and have been asking for a raise for several years. Now, all of a sudden other employees may need raises. Why isn't Sterling and some others in this study; why have they gotten ANOTHER raise? Same old-same old; administration gives themselves raises and benefits and those who actually do the work, get nothing.
Do they not realize that elections are coming up and most of our citizens have long memories with things like this?
And I won't even begin on the moratorium with the sewer yet on Greenville Loop there is more construction going on at one time now, than ever before.
We seem to have too many Good 'Ole Boys in the real estate development. But that's for another time.........

$220,000...for a study to determine whether city employees are being properly compensated. Another example of wasteful spending of our tax dollars.

Wilmington is top-heavy in management. One would think that with all those managers, one of them would have thought of asking other cities comparable to Wilmington what their pay structure is for city employees. But then again, our illustrious mayor has said he wants to convene a "summit" to study additional problems facing Wilmington. The only "summit" that needs to take place if for the voters to "summit" this fall and vote the incumbents out of office.

I realize that $220,000 is a mere drop in the bucket, but I personally feel these dollars could be better spent elsewhere, if spent at all.

Would anyone know how Mr. C exited his last place of employment? Word on the street is he was fired....

You have to be flipping kidding me. $220k for a study? Where do I sign on? I've done similar research for under $2000, it took a week, and the bulk of the money went to expenses for calls and postage. What a load of crap! God, this city LOVES to waste money on their little studies, don't they?

I think it is a waste of taxpayers money to hire an outside consultant firm for $200,000 to do a salary study. This should either be done internally by the City's Human Resources Dept.or the City should hire a couple of qualified staff people to do the study. In the computer age this information is readily available for far less than $200,000.

How about they just give the $220k out as pay raises and don't pay for a study. Check other cities of similar size for what they pay and go in the same ballpark. What in the hell has Cheatham done to deserve a pay raise? He should just be fired and give his salary out also.

First, the City of Wilmington NEVER ceases to amaze me. They are going to WASTE 220,000 DOLLARS...1/4 of a MILLION...on a study to see whether salaries are in line. WHY...all it takes is a teeny weeny little bit of investigation to see what other towns are paying and compare it to what Wilmington pays. You know...like the REST of the real world does it.

Second..is this little gem of a quote:

"Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said, "We're having a tough time in competition with the private sector. So we want to make sure that the adjustments we make in everybody's pay is reflective of what the private sector is also doing, so we can recruit people to work for the city.""

K...sounds to me like they ALREADY KNOW that they don't pay enough as they are having a tough time competing with the private sector for the same jobs...

HELLO...IS THIS THING ON?? I just wish we could BOOT OUT ALL of the idiots who hold elected seats and elect NORMAL people...people that actually HAVE problems to deal with and have experience in dealing with them.