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To put the matter into perspective, Mr. Brozosky said the issue is that salaries are increasing 35 percent in seven years. He believed the majority of the taxpayers in this community would not be receiving an additional 35 percent in their salaries. In terms of a longer time frame, Ms. McKeehan mentioned that when staff looked at the long-term contracts, they ran the comparison for salary increases backwards and forwards 20 years. The average compensation increase has been between 3 and 4 percent for every employee in the City of Pleasanton. Mr. Brozosky asked if the salaries of employees of the City of Pleasanton were competitive with like cities. Ms. McKeehan stated that the City of Pleasanton is about average. It is not the highest nor is it the lowest. When conducting salary survey comparisons, Mr. Brozosky asked how many other municipalities are used. For employees who belong to associations or unions, Ms. McKeehan noted that the salary comparison is made against a small number of cities, but for managers it is about 20 cities. Mr. Brozosky believed that when looking at a smaller sample of cities with like conditions, the City of Pleasanton sets the standard for increases by five percent. He was very concerned about the spiral effect this causes. He believed it was not completely fair to only compare salaries against other cities, and believed comparisons should be made against the entire job market. He asked if this had been done recently? Ms. McKeehan said a salary and job comparison survey with private industries had not been done recently. She has done this as a part of labor negotiations over the years, and some come in the about the same and some come in slightly higher. Planners and engineers working for development companies make substantially more than employees in those positions working for the City. The Information Services employees mn the gambit. There are times when they would make more elsewhere, and there are times when there are cutbacks in the private sector and the same job with cities looks attractive. The job market needs to be paid attention to in terms of finding employees and what they are eventually paid when they are hired. Recently, Mr. Brozosky was aware that the City had some job openings and wondered how many qualified responses were generally received. Ms. McKeehan stated that the City receives about 100 applications. It would also depend upon the position, as certain classifications drive a higher outcome, as well as the specific period of time that the job market is in. Pleasant City Council 17 10/21/03 Minutes