To: Board of Supervisors
From: Monica Nino, County Administrator
Report Title: Adopt Ordinance No. 2024-19 Exempting Positions from the Merit System - County Administrator’s Office
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
ADOPT Ordinance No. 2024-19 amending the County Ordinance Code to exempt from the merit system the new classifications of Labor Relations Supervisor-Exempt, Senior Labor Relations Analyst-Exempt, Labor Relations Analyst-Exempt and delete the classifications of Manager Capital Facilities and Debt Management-Exempt and Director of the Office of Children’s Services-Exempt.
FISCAL IMPACT:
No fiscal impact related to this action. Today’s action adopts an ordinance to exempt certain positions from the merit system and to remove references to certain job classifications that were previously exempt from the merit system but have since been abolished. A subsequent action will be submitted to the Board of Supervisors for approval to effectuate the organizational changes within the County Administrator’s Office, Labor Relations division as outlined in this staff report following formal adoption of Ordinance No. 2024-19.
BACKGROUND:
Beginning in 2022, the County Administrator’s Office (CAO) undertook a process to comprehensively review job classifications within the department. The goal has been to conduct holistic reviews at the division level, to ensure that classifications 1) appropriately reflect current job responsibilities, 2) have clear career paths outlined for the professional growth and development of staff and 3) provide compensation reflective of job responsibilities and labor market expectations.
Review of General Administration Division Functions
In 2022, the CAO completed its first division level review of job classifications within its General Administration division, which is responsible for day-to-day operations of the County, policy development and review, budget monitoring and development along with capital planning, debt management and legislative affairs. Ultimately, that process resulted in the prospective restructuring of existing job classifications from the merit system to being exempt from the merit system as current employees separate from County service and new recruitments are conducted in the classifications of Management Analyst, Senior Management Analyst and Senior Deputy County Administrator. The CAO also reactivated the classification of Deputy County Administrator, which had previously been unused for close to 20 years. In addition, the CAO worked with the Human Resources department to modernize the minimum qualifications and experiential requirements related to these job classifications, including development of an entry-level pipeline allowing the department access to recent college graduates looking to begin a career in local government.
Review of Labor Relations Division Functions
In 2024, the CAO began its holistic review of the Labor Relations division with similar goals to those of the General Administration division. A separate dimension of this review included a desire to conduct an impartial compensation and organizational review for several reasons, including 1) over the preceding two years the Human Resources department had recommended salary reallocations to certain classifications within that department based on difficult labor market conditions to attract experienced staff and 2) a change in reporting structure in 2021 following the retirement of the previous County Finance Director resulting in a change in responsibilities of the Chief of Labor Relations and reporting to the County Administrator has led to an evolution of responsibilities of the existing Principal Labor Relations Analyst. Specifically, the Principal Labor Relations Analyst has assumed a new level of supervisory responsibility, which had not previously been embedded within that role. 3) Recognizing the difference in roles, responsibilities and expectations between the Labor Relations division and the Human Resources department.
Selection of Outside Consultant
In January 2024, the CAO conducted informal outreach to public sector consulting firms familiar with the County’s operations to gauge interest in assisting with a salary and organizational study of the Labor Relations divisions. Following consultation meetings with Citygate Associates (Citygate) and Harvey Rose & Associates, Citygate was selected to perform this work. Both firms were well qualified to complete the requested scope of work; however, the Citygate team was led by Mr. Marc Fox, retired Solano County Director of Human Resources and former Assistant City Manager for the City of Pittsburg. Given Mr. Fox’s experience in human resources and familiarity with the County, the CAO executed a contract with Citygate in an amount not to exceed $13,500 to conduct this study on February 9, 2024 and work commenced immediately thereafter.
Summary of Major Study Findings and Recommendations
On April 30, 2024, Citygate issued a final report to the County with findings and recommendations related to the Labor Relations Division, including observations about the relationship between department and central human resources staff, market compensation data and proposed solutions to address internal inequities. Ultimately, Citygate delivered the study on time and under budget with a total cost to the County of $11,519. Below is a summary of major findings and recommendations:
1. Chief of Labor Relations Salary. The County requested that Citygate review the market compensation data for the Chief of Labor Relations classifications using the County’s typical comparison counties as well as a secondary analysis of which comparison counties provide central labor relations services specifically to county hospital functions. This is an important element and indicator of the level of sophistication required of a central labor relations function versus one that is standalone within a hospital system. Based on each review, the study found that the County’s Chief of Labor Relations classification was compensated at 11.75% greater than the median of all comparable counties, but was 1.43% less than the median of the subset of three counties that provide labor relations services to county hospital systems from that County’s central labor relations function.
2. Labor Relations Analyst II Salary. The County also requested that Citygate review the market compensation data for the Labor Relations Analyst II classification using the typical comparison counties. This classification is the Labor Relations divisions’ journey level classification within the established career path. Based on the review, the study found that the Labor Relations Analyst II classification was compensated at 4.71% below the median of all comparable counties.
3. Evolution of Principal Labor Relations Analyst to Labor Relations Supervisor. Since the establishment of the Chief of Labor Relations classification July 27, 2021, the incumbent of that position has become responsible for leading the development of overall labor relations strategy options for the Board of Supervisors and executive leadership. Previously, the County Administrator’s Office provided this level of strategy oversight from the General Administration division and the since abolished classification of Labor Relations Manager carried out that strategy and managed the day-to-day functions of employee relations across the County.
Over the past three years as the role of the Chief of Labor Relations has become more established, there has been a natural assumption of supervisory duties over that time for certain tasks within the Labor Relations division by the Principal Labor Relations Analyst, although this is not currently established as a supervisory position. The Citygate study recommends that this new supervisory role be codified in the organizational structure of the division; specifically, that the Principal Labor Relations Analyst classification be abolished and replaced with a Labor Relations Supervisor classification. This also adds a layer of organizational succession planning and stability in cases where the Chief of Labor Relations may be unavailable to the Board of Supervisors or the County Administrator.
In terms of establishing compensation for this new position, Citygate reviewed the internal alignment of like classifications within the Human Resources department. Specifically, Citygate is recommending that the top salary step for the new classification of Labor Relations Supervisor be established at a rate of 20.7% above the top salary step of the Labor Relations Analyst II classification. This reflects the current internal convention applied between the Human Resources Supervisor classification and the Human Resources Analyst classification.
4. Transition to Consistent Five (5) Step Salary Range. Currently, the Labor Relations division uses a mixed approach to the number of salary steps within the salary range for certain job classifications. For example, the Labor Relations Technician classification has five (5) salary steps with the other labor relations-based classifications having seven (7) salary steps. Similar jobs classifications within central and department human resources job classifications typically have five (5) steps within the salary range. To complete this step reduction, it is recommended that steps 1 and 2 of each impacted classification be deleted (for example, the current step 3 will become the new step 1, etc. for each impacted job classification).
Summary of Proposed Reorganization
Subsequent to delivery of the study by Citygate, the County Administrator’s Office reviewed the proposed recommendations, including the major findings and recommendations above. In addition to the proposed recommendations by Citygate, it was determined that the analyst and supervisory positions within the Labor Relations division should be exempted from the merit system, similar to the process undertaken in 2022 for other County Administrator department classifications given the nature of the work and similar applications of at-will status among executive department classifications across the state. Based on the Citygate recommendations and the application of exempt status to Labor Relations division classifications, below is a comparison summary of the current and proposed organizational structures of the Labor Relations division reflecting proposed changes in titles, compensation amounts (as outlined above), revisions to step counts and impacts on compaction between classifications:
On October 8, 2024, the Board of Supervisors introduced Ordinance No. 2024-19 which exempts certain classifications within the Labor Relations division from the merit system as outlined above and fixed October 22, 2024 for adoption. In addition, the ordinance introduced proposed to delete reference to two (2), previously abolished job classifications that were formerly exempt from the merit system.
Today’s action requests that the Board formally adopt Ordinance No. 2024-19, which will take effect thirty days following the date of action by the Board. Following adoption of this ordinance, the County Administrator’s Office will return to the Board of Supervisors with a subsequent item to effectuate the reorganization of the Labor Relations division as outlined in the staff report above.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
Ordinance No. 2024-19 will not be formally adopted by the Board of Supervisors and a future date will need to be fixed for adoption should the Board wish to proceed with exempting classifications from the merit system.