City plans to fully implement pay-for-performance in 2018

The city’s pay-for-performance system was among many items discussed at the Yuma City Council’s Tuesday night special budget work session, where meetings previously scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday were cancelled.

City Administrator Greg Wilkinson told the Sun the electronic evaluation part of the system has been in place for a couple of years, based on prior council direction, but hasn’t been completely implemented due to lack of funding.

“We’re already using the evaluation system, (but) now the issue is if we have the money to actually implement the performance pay,” he said. “When we initially started out on the budget, we didn’t feel we had enough money to implement it this year.”

However, Wilkinson noted that the city has had significant land sale revenue through the property sold to the food processor Almark, and has another property that he said he’s 90 percent sure will sell later this year.

Those, he said, will allow the complete pay-for-performance system to be implemented by Jan. 1, 2018.

“We build the budget very conservatively,” Wilkinson said. “The sec-

ond (sale) won’t close until partway through this year, and so … that will give us enough money to implement it, but not until Jan. 1 — when we would have normally done it July 1 (for the 2017-18 fiscal year).”

While he added that “the deal is never done until it’s done,” it’s highly expected.

Wilkinson told the council that employees didn’t initially buy in to the payfor-performance system, but he believes they’re on board now. He said the system shows “that their work is cherished, and the work they do is good.”

The city administrator also mentioned that departments are consistently working to cut down on simple things like electricity to save the city money.

He said that “outstanding” employees might get an extra 1 percent pay increase, while others may get a 0.5 percent increase or none. The discretion would be given to department heads, Wilkinson said.

At the meeting, council also briefly discussed:

• The proposed outside agency funding decrease that would drop Yuma Visitors Bureau funding from $650,000 to $400,000.

• Plans to install LED streetlights in the next year that will save the city $600,000 annually.

• This year’s goal to use CIP funds for road maintenance, with a focus on collector and arterial roads. The city plans to focus on road replacement next year.

Editor’s Note: This is one in a series of stories this week that will discuss the city of Yuma’s proposed fiscal year 2017-18 budget. The preliminary budget adoption is set for the April 5 regular council meeting.