Kettering set to vote on 2019 personnel raises and changes

Kettering will vote on Tuesday on changes in pay grades and restructuring of positions for city employees for 2019.

If approved, the move would add raises for non-union and part-time employees, boost police and fire staffing and make changes to the the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department.

Council members last week held a first reading of an ordinance to adjust wages for non-union employees to match raises for union workers. The city wants to change the pay scales from what was a 2 percent increase for 2018 to a 2.5 percent raise for non-union employees.

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The 2018 budget includes total personnel costs of $51 million, which is two-thirds of the city’s operating budget. The $51 million included a 2 percent across-the-board pay increase.

The city has changed staffing in some areas, such as boosting the number of patrol officers.

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“This coincides with increasing our budget for patrol officers from 63 to 65 as we anticipate entering into an agreement with the Kettering school district for school resource officers for the school year beginning in August of 2019,” City Manager Mark Schwieterman said. “The schools will be reimbursing the city for those employees at 70 percent of the calendar year.”

The city also plans on adding five firefighter positions and one fire captain position.

Some changes are proposed regarding senior management positions in the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department.

In the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department, the city has added a recreation superintendent’s position, which was removed more than a decade ago. It will also add a full-time ice facility coordinator and part-time business technician position.

The superintendent’s position is expected to have a pay range of $77,770 to $108,014, depending on experience and qualifications.

“Numerous title changes have also been made throughout the Parks and Rec organizational chart to bring those titles in and be more consistent with the rest of the city’s titles for positions,” Schwieterman said. “The ordinance this year for the first time in many years, we’ve removed a lot of duplicate information from the collective bargaining agreements. Collective bargaining agreements are the controlling agreement for our union issues and to provide clarity we’ve removed a lot of duplicate information from this ordinance.”

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According the city’s human resource department, the city employs about 400 regular full-time employees, 100 regular part-time employees, 30 part-time firefighters and more than 500 seasonal employees. The raises are for the full- and part-time workers.

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