City Salary Study on Council Agenda

Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
Tonight the Kodiak City Council will meet for a regular meeting and hold a public hearing on an ordinance that would exclude reference and transitory documents from the definitions of city and public records. City Manager Aimee Kniaziowski said during the first reading of the ordinance on January 10 that it is more of a clarification than an actual change, but would bar certain documents from inclusion of a public records request.
Also on the agenda is the authorization of a contract for preliminary design of a snow dump storage yard and an amendment to a contract for geotechnical work associated with the Pier III project.
Tonight the council will also vote on whether or not to accept the findings of a salary and benefits study. Lori Messer of Fox Lawson & Associates presented the findings of that study during the council’s Tuesday work session and said on the average city employee salaries lag the market by nine percent. She said that number is still competitive, and Kodiak becomes even more competitive when you factor in benefits. Then Kodiak only lags the market by 1 percent. Messer said this doesn’t mean that all city employees are underpaid; in fact, she said in some cases employees are actually well above the market value. Tonight the city will vote to accept the study, and look toward bringing underpaid city employees up to market. Messer said if the city were to do that it would incur an additional cost of $77,000 each year.
The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. in the borough assembly chambers and will be broadcast live on KMXT.