Milford council agrees to model pay scenarios, to apply 3% COLA and seek consultant for long-term salary study

Milford City Council on Feb. 6 directed staff to model a short‑term pay plan and to explore hiring an outside consultant to review the city’s decade‑old salary scale.

Councilors agreed to apply a 3% cost‑of‑living adjustment (COLA) this year and asked staff to run payroll scenarios showing additional salary‑based increases of 1.5%, 2% and 3% applied to individual salaries. The council also asked staff to seek quotes and budget authority for a professional compensation study to update step ranges, job descriptions and longevity provisions.

The discussion followed a wide review of the city’s 2016 10‑step salary grid and its later additions for longevity and merit. "When we hit into the tenth step...we wanted to try merit raises," an unidentified council speaker said, adding that prior merit allocations produced employee discontent when amounts varied by hourly rate. City staff reported that the city’s payroll (salaries excluding benefits) is approximately $596,007.54; councilors asked staff to show how the proposed increases would affect operating and maintenance budgets.

Several councilors argued the current structure leaves long‑tenured employees with little pathway for pay growth and encouraged modernizing the grid. One councilor urged the city to budget for a consultant to avoid perceived partiality and to produce defensible market comparisons; participants mentioned consultant cost estimates ranging from about $10,000 to $30,000. "If we do this one time, best gonna set us up where we know from now on," an unidentified speaker said in support of a study.

Councilors also requested that staff compile comparative pay data from neighboring cities such as Beaver and Minersville and to run a small set of illustrative scenarios (a/b/c options) that show impacts for new hires, two‑year employees and 20+‑year employees.

Unidentified Speaker 1 (staff) said they would prepare and distribute the existing salary scale and modeling results and would draft any resolution needed to remove the current merit provision (discussed as resolution 4‑24 in the meeting) while the long‑term study is pursued. The council agreed to review the numbers at its next meeting on March 13.

Next steps: staff will send the payroll breakdown and scenario runs to council members, obtain consultant quotes and present options for final vote at a future meeting.