Administrator Larry Fronk said the township needs to remain competitive, a desire that led to the wage study.
“We needed to look at West Chester’s ability to attract and retain a highly motivated and quality workforce. I think that’s very important,” Fronk said. “In the short time that I’ve been here, five months, I’ve come to find that West Chester has a very high quality and very motivated workforce, and I think it’s important to keep that talent.”
The top spot on the range list is for an assistant township administrator. That position had remained open while former administrator Judi Boyko was at the helm. The old range for that position was $79,841 to $123,945, and the new range is $92,372 to $144,456. The township’s new Administrator, Larry Burks, is coming in with a salary of $135,000, according to his contract.
“I questioned it as well, some of these are really hefty increases in these ranges, but we don’t have to use them,” Trustee Mark Welch said. “But it does give us the liberty and also allows us to give performance merit increases to folks that are doing great on the job.”
Trustees Ann Becker and Lee Wong said they had no comment on the range increase amounts.
As a result of the range changes, several employees were given pay rate increases on Tuesday to get them back in the range for their position, but the total impact is only $51,560 out of a total payroll of $18.5 million without benefits and $26.5 million including benefits.
Wong said the pay bumps were warranted.
“We are not doing this process because of who we like and who we dislike, this is properly researched, thoroughly,” Wong said. “Good quality personnel in our township and that we pay them justly.”
The rest of the non-contract staff won’t get raises until they get their performance reviews next year. Each year the departments are given a pool of money and the department heads dole out the raises.
The trustees also approved setting a wage cap for the position of police captain at 2.5 percent higher than the lieutenants’ pay and the assistant police chief’s position 2.5 percent higher than the captains’ pay level. Because the lieutenants are in a union, in 2018 they would have had a situation in which they were making more than their supervisors.
“This is one of those situations where the guy who is your supervisor, you’re making more than that guy, so why be the supervisor,” Welch said. “The lieutenants’ annual base salary in 2018 will be $103,187, the captains annual base salary in 2018 would be $100,820.”
Fronk said the township plans to revisit their salary ranges every three years. They hadn’t been adjusted in seven years.
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