Alderwoman Joanne Suomi with Aldermen Michael O’Meara and Jerry Moore. The trio who rarely agree on anything have all said they have problems with the process the city’s pay plan has undergone, eventually settling with the idea that the new plan is better than no new plan at all. (City-Times photo)

By Brandi Makuski

After more than a year of debate and months of privately considering appeals, city leaders on Monday will hear the final appeals from 10 city employees who dispute their grade placement within the city’s new pay plan.

In July Council Members argued they didn’t have time to prepare for considering the appeals, citing more than 200 pages of information passed out the day before a long July 4th weekend. Mayor Andrew Halverson said the Council had the information long before the official meeting packet was released to the public, and said any complaints were likely the result of personal time management on the part of the alderpersons.

The Council and Halverson have never seen eye-to-eye on the pay plan, which is intended to better reflect competitive wages for each position in city employment and reflective of averages from similar positions in various municipalities throughout the state. But the plan was a sore spot from the start, as Council Members had a hard time agreeing on which municipalities should be considered comparable to Stevens Point. In July, Halverson suggested the city should either move forward with the current plan or begin from scratch at an estimated cost of $30,000. There has been no movement to date towards a new plan.

Though city leaders have all stressed the new grade placements and wage steps are reflective of the actual positions and duties performed- not intended as a recognition for individual staff members- more than 40 employees filed appeals with the city. All but ten of the appeals were considered and resolved privately by a team consisting of Halverson, Alderman Mike Phillips and Charlie Carlson from Carlson Dettmann.

Those ten employees will have their final appeal heard by the entire Council Monday night at 6 PM during a special Council meeting at Lincoln Center, 1519 Water Street. The public is welcome.

The employees are: Dawn Klish, Sec. II; Jason Pliska, Inspection Tech.; Roger Skrzeczkoski, Welder-Frabricator/Mechanic; David Worzalla, DPW Level 2 (Carpenter); Susan Pagel, Account Clk. II; Rob Molski,
Conveyance Systems Mgr.; Tom Carroll, Operations Sup.; James Wojcik, DPW Level 3 (Painter); Lorna Whalen, Admin. Ass’t Fire; and Scott Boyer, DPW Level 3 (Painter).