Photo by: Leslie Cantu/Journal Scene

The Archer study

Appropriate pay is again a topic of conversation at Summerville Town Hall as the council prepares to conduct its own pay study ahead of the 2013 budget discussions.

Town Council met for two-and-a-half hours in executive session at a special called meeting Saturday to discuss employee compensation.

Afterward, the council agreed to conduct its own pay study and to authorize the mayor to negotiate pay with Doyle Best, who will take over Mike Hinson’s role as parks and recreation manager next month.

Summerville paid the Archer Company about $23,000 in 2009 to conduct a pay study. The town never implemented the company’s recommendations, though, and council members said the study was flawed.

Council originally wanted the study, Councilman Walter Bailey said, because of concern it was losing too many firefighters and police officers to nearby jurisdictions offering better pay.

Bailey thought the Archer study was flawed, though, because it included towns in the Rock Hill area when looking at pay comparisons rather than focusing on Lowcountry jurisdictions.

Nonetheless, the council agreed in 2010 to increase all employees’ pay at least to the minimum recommended levels in the Archer study and to give a 2 percent cost of living raise.

The Archer study examined every job in the town and asked employees to complete a 26-page questionnaire about their duties.

It then assigned points to every job based on complexity and recommended a minimum, mid-point and maximum salary, with the mid-point being the average rate of competitive jurisdictions.

The study recommended that the town raise salaries to the mid-point level. Raising salaries to the mid-point would have cost $1.8 million, or almost 16 percent of what the town spent on salaries.

Raising them only to the minimum, though, cost $116,556, or 1 percent of budgeted salaries.

Police Chief Bruce Owens said there were only a few people whose salaries were below the minimum at the time of the study.

Turnover is an issue, he said, because a police officer can get a few years under his or her belt and then go down the road to North Charleston and make $5,000 to $6,000 more.

Summerville currently follows the state standards for educational qualifications for a police officer. Applicants must have a high school diploma or GED.

Owens said he’s tried to get higher pay grades for applicants with college degrees but has been unsuccessful. Across the country, departments are moving toward requiring college degrees, he said.

The city of Charleston, for example, requires police officer candidates to have a bachelor’s degree, an associate’s degree with four years of law enforcement or military experience or a high school diploma with six years of law enforcement or military experience.

It starts officers with bachelor’s degrees at $39,338, or almost $5,000 more than officers with high school diplomas and experience.

Mt. Pleasant requires police officers to have either an associate’s degree or the equivalent number of credit hours.

Its minimum pay for police officers is $33,287.

Archer study recommendations

                   Minimum    mid-point    maximum

Firefighters    $29,155    $34,986    $40,817

Police        $30,789    $36,947    $43,105

The Archer study assigned points to every job in the town based on its complexity. Jobs were then grouped into grades. Since the Archer study, the town has changed some job titles and consolidated the number of department heads. It also no longer has a town administrator.

Jobs by order of complexity, per Archer study       Actual pay of most highly-compensated employees

1 - Town Administrator

2 - Director of Planning & Economic Development

3 - Police Chief

4 - Assistant Administrator/Clerk

5 - Town Engineer

6 - Finance Director

6 - Parks and Recreation Manager

6 - Streets Manager

7 - Information Technology Manager

7 – Fire Chief

8 – Assistant Police Chief

8 – Town Planner

9 – Assistant Fire Chief

9 – Fleet Maintenance Manager

10 – Municipal Judge

10 – part-time municipal judge

Charlie Miller, dir. Public works (formerly planning & econ. Develop) $102,137

Bruce Owens, dir. Public Safety/Police Chief $94,229

Lisa Wallace, dir. Administrative Services (formerly Asst. Admin/Clerk) $82,957

Belinda Harper, finance director $78,030

Russ Cornette, town engineer, $77,857

Leonard Larkin, IT director, $74,468

Richard Waring, fire chief, $74,000

Tom Finucan, municipal judge, $71,777

Mike Hinson*, parks and rec manager, $70,119

James Avant, streets dir., $69,885

Daniel Corbin, fleet maint. dir., $67,506

Frank Nigro, asst. police chief, $67,203

John Allston, asst. fire chief, $66,639

Madelyn Robinson, dir. planning & econ. develop. $66,129

*Doyle Best is taking the parks and recreation manager position March 1 at salary of $59,738

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