Consultant outlines salary-survey plan to help Longview benchmark pay and retain staff

A consultant working for the city described a proposed market-pay survey designed to help Longview determine competitive pay for city job classifications.

Matt Weatherly said the plan is to collect salary plans, job descriptions and organization charts from a set of peer cities (about 10–14) and build a custom database identifying the going rates for comparable municipal jobs. "The entire intent is to establish the going rate for each of your jobs," Weatherly said, explaining the methodology will allow the city to normalize data for cost-of-living, general-fund size and staff-size differences.

He recommended an "over-survey" approach—surveying a larger list of comparator cities and then selecting the best matches—so the city has options if some jurisdictions deviate on particular job mixes. Weatherly noted some jobs have fewer comparable data points (for example, sanitation or local housing positions) and that private-sector comparators may be used for some high-portability roles.

Council members generally supported the approach and asked staff to return in January with a final survey-city list and authorization to proceed so staff can collect data and present pay recommendations in the spring to inform next year's budget discussions.