Wilmington residents react to $220,000 salary study

Everyone needs to look at this as a possible antitrust violation. If you believe that the city and the consulting firm has created a labor market on paper different than the actual market then this could be wage fixing which is a violation of the Sherman antitrust act. Look up Todd v. Exonn for a better explanation or just type in wage fixing antitrust violations.If this consulting firm is being hired by other public employers in your area you could have a case of bid rigging also. There are thousands of firms who specialize in conducting salary studies. Find out how many firms bid on the job if there are not any you have been scamed.

Not only is this about the 15th study I have had to endure but I also seem to recall the City purchasing a .25 acre lot downtown for 2.5 million dollars recently. Now I'm all about making this city more attractive but come on. 2.5 million + 200k = nice little pay raise for City Employees. All City employees are due a cost of living bump but if you qualify for merit that should be given as well. Not only do I work for the City but I live in it as well and as a tax payer I don't mind a small increase to boost all City of Wilmington Employees. Everyone but Al "tighta%#" Mckinzie. City Employees will breath a sigh of relief when that guy is gone. You listining Bill?

You can add this to other quality decisions such as the multiple studies, contracts, broken contracts etc. of the downtown convension center.
Stop waisting our money on Special Interests.

City of Wilmington would be bankrupt if it didn't have the guaranteed tax base as income. There is no other kind of business ,besides other municipalities, that not only allow but encourage mismanagement. This starts with members of council, continues to the city manager and deputy city manager and most of the department heads. I would like to exclude one member of council and the Chief of Police. There is absolutely no accountability in the City of Wilmington. No one has any answers and they don't plan on getting answers. They plan on the tax payers and the employees of the city to get tired and forget. We can only hope that the $220,000 study will be implemented correctly, not like the last city wide pay study 7-8 years ago. Or even the Fire Dept. assessment most recently. City of Wilmington- Congrats on your stall tactics! The one thing you do right.

My first question is why the Human Resource Department feels or do they feel they cannot perform the study. My second question if the City of Wilmington has hired professionals then bias is not a factor, any professional should know how to think critically. A professional should be aware of bias and heuristics and therefore take steps to ensure they are eliminated from the equation. As one person has already commented citation of your sources is an excellent tactic to support the conclusions the study would draw.
Throughout my educational journey I was consistently required to support my conclusions and recommendations by utilizing credible sources and citation.
Perhaps the City should examine their hiring practices a little closer, my degree happens to be in HR Management and this is one of the core competencies of that field. I see no reason why the City can’t save some money and perform this task.

The City of Wilmington has been a small blue collar town for many decades it is only recently that it has grown at such a fast rate. The people that have lead to this growth are people from bigger northern cities that expect big things in life, and believe they have all the answers. They come into a town that was doing find and have to shake everything up from builder a bigger mall tens years ago and filling it with upper scale stores which if you have been out to the mall lately you would have noticed that the majority of these stores are now VACANT. This trend contiues all across the city in many aspects and one is the pay of this cities hard working employees. The big wigs feel they can pay less then standard pay for the cost of living in their city in which they work and get away with it. Therefore the qualified workers who know better eigther quite or don't bother applying for jobs for the City. This leads to problems with un-qualified employees and a brain drain. Good Job Wilmington you thought you could be a Big City.

In light of all the national attention on dog fighting stirred up by Micheal Vick. I think a better analogy than, "which has no dog in the fight", would be appropriate. Welcome to the spotlight Billo.

What you willing to bet that the study will be turned in just about election time. The study will say give everybody money and that will be that, instant 3,000+ votes.

We are all such suckers!

The salary study is just another way to pacify all the employees who griped about nedding a raise. This way it shows them that something is being done whether the employees actually get a raise or not. At least the so call mayor can say that we tried. I have been a state goverment employee for almost 20 years and let tell you that any time the government tells you lets do a study then can count on being screwed out of any money for the employee and all you will have to show for it is another high priced survey with no results for the ones who need it the most.

220K billed at $180/hour (generous for most independant auditing agencies) equates to over 1200 billable hours. The private sector would never consider alotting this number of hours to such a narrow scope. The explanation of the need for an independant agent is sound, but the City has a responsibility to ensure the study is focused to a reasonable number of hours. In the private sector, diligence is performed to ensure this kind of cash does not bleed out for such a narrow focus.

If the city has managed to find $220,000, why don't they use the $220,000 towards raises for employees. Even a little raise is better than nothing. Over a period of time, small raises help salaries catch up with the national averages.

The county government that I used to work for did the same thing a few years ago. When the results came back, the ranking officials received a salary increase and the rank and file workers received nothing. This one will probably be no different. The city will get the results that they wish to receive.

Clearly, this was not a sound decision and the citizens have spoken. Rescind the decision to spend 1/4 million dollars for this study and give your city employees a raise so that they can live in this city. Admitting a mistake is not a wrong thing, it's the right thing in this case, and get the objective information from sources that cost less.

Don't you think that money could be put to much better use? Like FIXING THE SEWAGE PROBLEM BEFORE WE ALL DIE OF POISONING? HUH???

You can do an online salary study for $100...
What gives with sucking my tax dollars down ?

Saffo said, "If our City human relations director came to us with a recommendation, I guarantee you it would be criticized. When it's an independent third party that's looking at it, which has no dog in the fight, then that person will look at it objectively."
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For $220,000...I'll tell you anything you want to hear!

This is going to be my chant all the way to the voting booth! While I vote you out of office. Already planning on the sign campaign that will serve everyone BUT you running for mayor of Wilmington. Ultimatly the buck stops with you and your wasting our money.

Time for Saffo to GO!

How in the world can you just throw $220,000 dollars right out the window? City Council said they didn't have money in the budget for raises for the firefighters. Where did this money come from??? We all know that our firefighters are at least 40%-50% underpaid. It doesn't take a additional $220,000 price tag to understand that. You all sure don't my putting raises in the budget for yourselves. These guys are working 24 hr shifts and then going to second jobs right after they get off. Just to make ends meet. Come on Mr. Mayor I know you're better than this. I hope the citizens of this city remember this next election!

The study of all municipal salaries are done in the state of NC each year and paid for by the state.

A simple five-minute search on the internet by anyone can turn this document up. It's Public Domain material. Free to all tax payers.

Why wasn't this good enough for the City of Wilmington? They were a part of the study compilation.

Time to march on city hall and find out WHY!?!
Time to march down there and find out who is so close buddy-buddy with the people that do the so called study, the same ones that studied the convention center as well. Time to light a tourch and go on down there. Fight the tyranny!

A true human Relations Director would treat the employees as valuable assets to the city and not as expendable property. A paid study of the fire department criticized the director for running the show like it was the 70’s, but leave it to the city to hire a man who just about destroyed Fayetteville, NC and to my knowledge was terminated.

no i think whomever the firm is doing the survey has greased some palms or lined them pockets or sent a special gift, yeah like bid rigging if you no what i mean look at thomas wright and the money he took to withhold a bill from the board of nursing union in raleigh .hey thats what big business are doing now adays greasing them palms like a gay day parade in san fransico.

the city council is suppose to look out for the best interest of the cititians of wilmington , how ever that is not the case. all the city councilmen and the city attorny office are well aware of the herrazment and terrotist of code enforcement. the largest and most constied violaters public nususane ordance couple with the fact that they are beyound any reasonalby expectations. they make dermination that never backed up by any contipate authority and use scared tactic to the citians of wilmington. they are up bove search and seizure laws of this country and the city council allows them to act indepentanly and without any common cents.
if somthing is allow or not allow they will not answer you. can they can past 15 house with violations and come right to yours. they can come into your house and you can not stop them they do not have probly cause. the can condemm your protery without any facts but they can make up facts and it will be taken as the gosple truth. The mayor, the city attorney office can all be shown violacions and nothing will happen, but the person who brings it to the lime-light will be persuit and proctuted. however, if anyone cares or is un happy with this facts or being select inforce unfair by code enforcment orand want to join a citizin group that has been formed. feel free to contact me at this e-mail address or call me at 910-547-9663. neal shulman

i have already seen the results of the survey plezzzz stop payment immediately , star news already posted this on the front page ,call star news and ask for a copy ,it stated that wilmington ranked lowest in the state and the nation for public service jobs, i remember it clearly because 7.00 dollars an hour to drive a trash truck all day for the city is insane .when you can go to raleigh or charlotte and its double that per hour try 14.00 i also commented on this when wway posted it if your not in the food or tourist or hotel or boat indusrty your a slave to the master ,or if your smart enough and have the credit to start your own business your ok but again wilmington is a farfegnugen a cluster**** ,disneyworld right in the middle of mayberry .plezzz take the money and buy lottery tickets i will feel alot better about being a resident and i want feel like im in an insane aslyumm with recovering psychos running it .

given the level of incompetence shown by the majority of the current sitting council. Their complete lack of disregard for the infrastructure of our city is abominable and irreprehensible.

The cronyism and good 'ol boy attitude clouds their better judgement and only serves to reinforce the distrust the majority of Wilmington residents have for them.

Only by voting them out of office and the injection of new council members can this fiscal mismanagement legacy be broken.

Saffo, please stop insulting the intelligence of the voting public. We ALL KNOW that the firefighter(for a start) are underpaid, and that certain other parties (who seem to have no problem getting theirs) are disgustingly overpaid. Who the hell needs a third party to tell us that? Stop spending our money on this crap.

The city council and the Mayor need to be replaced. They waste money. They sure did know how to give themselves raises. They are not honest and the good old boy mentality doesn't work anymore. Saffo you are history in Politics. You were faced, that is why you are spending. You said, I wil show them! Well, you are definately showing.
I think theat the taxpayer is sick and tired of paying for PORK and unessessary things. You will make me drink sewer water and cross a bridge that is deficient but you will spend money foolishly. It is past time that Wilmington people need to fight back and stop the politians from wasting tax money.

Saffo is doing the side step shuffle. NO, it wouldn't be criticized if you cited your public sources so that the people could see how you came to your conclusions. COME ON we aren't STUPID Saffo. Give me a break! If you cannot do a simply salary study and be objective about it citing different sources and showing how you came to the conclusion you simply don't need to be working for us.

The city of Wilmington needs to step up! They should not have to spend almost a 1/4 of a million dollars to figure out what the city workers should be paid. That money could go along way at helping with the current problem.