City Hall raises OKd in Newport

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- Hoping to avert a replay of past recruiting woes, the

City Council agreed Tuesday night to revamp the pay structure of some key

city staff.

The 6-0 vote means a 2.5% raise beginning in July for dozens of key

and management personnel, excluding the city manager, attorney and clerk.

Mayor Gary Adams was absent.

But more important, some city officials say, is a new pay structure

that has been put into place for new hires and raises for existing staff.

That pay structure was devised after staff surveyed other cities in the

county.

“We seem to be one of the few cities, if not the only city, in Orange

County that doesn’t have ranges of salaries -- we only have ranges for

safety personnel, police and fire,” Councilman Steven Bromberg said. “We

had no basis apparently for the salaries that were in existence. We had

no direction or basis for what salaries should be.”

Newport Beach staff rank about average countywide in pay, but a lack

of set salary ranges has posed problems for recruiting top-notch

candidates, City Manager Homer Bludau said. Without such, new hires can’t

know how much they can aspire to earn once they’ve earned tenure and

raises.”I think this will help attract and retain employees,” Bludau

said. “Until now, with no salary structure for them to enter, they don’t

know where they can end up.”

On the top end of the new scale, a police chief will make between

$10,071 and $12,271 a month, an assistant city manager will earn from

$9,352 to $11,395, and the fire chief will earn from $9,826 to $11,972.

In the lower range, an administrative assistant to the human resources

director’s monthly salary will range from $2,943 to $4,141, a human

resources assistant will be paid between $3,401 and $4,784, and an

administrative assistant to the fire chief will get between $3,166 and

$4,454 monthly.

Salary structures remain unchanged for employees represented by

bargaining groups. The raises will cost the city $138,173.

Reclassification of another half-dozen employees, which was also approved

by the council Tuesday, will cost the city an additional $56,271.

In recent years, a number of positions have gone unfilled because

noncompetitive salaries and lack of a pay range crippled the city’s

efforts to recruit quality people, Bludau said.

-- June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 june.casagrande@latimes.comf7 .