In Waynesville, it’s market pay vs. municipal reality
Jon Feichter, a member of the Waynesville Town Council,listens to a presentation on salaries at the town’s annual budget retreat.
Cory Vaillancourt photo
At a Feb. 27 budget retreat, Waynesville aldermen confronted a familiar tension — how to keep municipal salaries competitive in a tightening labor market while staring down mounting infrastructure demands and lingering financial uncertainty tied to Hurricane Helene.
Two presentations from Human Resources Director Page McCurry outlined the first steps in an overhaul of pay classifications, beginning with public works positions and moving next to police and fire.
“This is technically phase one of pay classification studies, pay studies that we’re doing across all divisions and departments,” McCurry said.
She noted that it had been several years since the town last undertook a full pay and classification review.
The sustainability division study, conducted by consultant DeLane Huneycutt of MAPS Group, focused on positions funded through enterprise revenues — water, sewer, electric distribution and related roles. The executive summary presented to the board outlined market data for benchmark positions and final recommendations. What Huneycutt found was a mix.
Several positions — including lab analyst, advanced plant operator, utility maintenance specialist, treatment plant operator, utility locator, senior plant operator and all electric distribution positions — were below market average.
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Others, including treatment plant superintendents, lab supervisor, pump mechanics, chief plant operators, distribution and collections superintendent, crew leaders and meter readers, were at or above market average.
McCurry explained the standard used to determine those classifications.
“The market is defined as being less than 3.5% from the market midpoint,” she said.
If a position fell more than 3.5% below the market midpoint, it was flagged for adjustment. If it fell within that window — even slightly below — it was considered aligned.
“That is a standard amount that consultants in pay class use,” McCurry said.
The recommendations were straightforward; the consultant suggested a 7% increase for all below-market roles, two- to three-grade increases in those classifications, reclassification of two roles, the addition of five new pay grades at the top of the scale and correction of pay-grade compression gaps.
Pay grade compression occurs when there are only small differences in pay between employees — regardless of experience, seniority or skills. Often, pay grade compression occurs when starting salaries for new hires climb faster than raises for existing staff.
Implementing those changes immediately for the remainder of the current fiscal year, excluding overtime adjustments, would be surprisingly reasonable.
“The total impact, if we implement the increases beginning with the March 5 pay period, is $41,764.14,” McCurry said. “I think this is great news.”
That figure would be spread across respective enterprise funds, with general fund impact limited to less than $1,200. Enterprise fund expenditures and revenues are sequestered in their respective funds and are not comingled with general fund expenditures or revenues.
The modest near-term cost offered some reassurance, but board members pressed on methodology and philosophical direction.
Council member Jon Feichter questioned whether the 3.5% market window might mask employees hovering just under competitiveness.
“That three-and-a-half percent seems like a big window to me,” Feichter said.
McCurry responded that the study examined positions, not individuals, and that minor variances — positive or negative — indicated overall alignment.
“What that tells us is that we are on target for market,” she said.
McCurry added that the town’s pay philosophy has historically aimed for close agreement with the current employment conditions.
“We want to be in alignment with the market. We don’t want to lag or lead,” she said.
Still, she acknowledged that today, financial realities temper ambition.
“If we didn’t have the outstanding FEMA projects and infrastructure projects that we have financially, I would say, ‘Let’s go for it, folks.’ But I don’t know that today’s the right time,” McCurry said.
The conversation widened into broader fiscal concerns, including dependence on property tax revenue and the difficulty of balancing ad valorem rates against service expectations.
“The challenge for all of us is to balance the impact of your ad valorem taxes and your fees [and] your utility fees for the citizens against the needs,” said Town Manager Rob Hites.
The sustainability study represents only phase one.
Phase two focuses on public safety — Waynesville Police Department and Waynesville Fire Department — with a timeline already in motion.
The methodology calls for identifying a core market of roughly a dozen peer comparison organizations, with flexibility to expand if necessary.
Unlike the enterprise study, police and fire leadership selected their own peer comparison organizations, a move McCurry described as intentional.
“They were the ones who identified the particular organizations that they felt were our competitors,” she said.
Limitations include incomplete salary range data and the unavailability of information from nonprofit fire departments that are not subject to public records laws.
Despite those hurdles, McCurry said the process is ahead of schedule and aimed at delivering draft findings by early April so that any compensation adjustments can be incorporated into the upcoming fiscal year budget, which must be passed by July 1.
She emphasized that the goal is not to hand out windfalls but to ensure fairness and competitiveness.
“I don’t go into this hoping that everybody gets big fat raises, because that means we’ve not done a good job,” McCurry said.
Her hope, she added, is simpler.
“I want to be able to say, ‘Hey, we’ve done this right the whole time,’” she said.
Phase three, slated to begin in July, will address all remaining administrative and general fund positions not included in the first two phases.
For town council, the coming months will require weighing consultant data against economic headwinds and long-term capital demands. Competitive pay may be essential to retaining skilled operators, police officers and firefighters, but every adjustment reverberates through rate structures and tax bills.
Near the end of the meeting, Council approved unanimously by motion the initial pay adjustments for the current budget and included one position that didn’t quite meet the 3.5% limit but was close. The total ended up at $46,752.99.
