Page 12 - FY 2020-21 Blue Book Volume I

All salary figures reflect projected 2020-21 salaries (effective July 1, 2020) to the extent available. Salary
rates for some classifications are subject to change according to the prevailing wage pay schedule; for
these classifications the Building Trades Council will submit basic wage information to the City
Administrative Officer.

As-Needed Position authority is provided and controlled by appropriations in most instances and/or by
number of positions in others. An individual department/bureau is provided with listings of authorized
as-needed position classifications.

Departments routinely submit personnel authorization reports (Employment Level Report) for each of the
12 monthly periods to the City Administrative Officer to show the average level of employment and
utilization of personnel that is contemplated with budgeted funds. New positions may only be financed for
part of the year in accordance with a realistic recruiting and hiring program.

III. SELECTED BUDGETARY TERMS

The following budgetary terms appear in the Blue Book. To promote clarity for the reader, they are defined
below:

EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION ADJUSTMENTS

During each budget year, the City may provide a cost of living adjustment for City employees. Funding for
civilian and/or sworn employees is placed in individual departmental budgets.

SALARY STEP PLAN AND TURNOVER EFFECT

The City compensation system is composed of compensation ranges. Ranges have multiple steps or
levels. Most ranges have either eleven or fifteen steps. Assuming satisfactory performance, incumbents in
each range move from step to step over a period of time.

The Salary Step Plan and Turnover Effect is the estimated net effect of the salary step effect and the
turnover effect for the budget year. The salary step effect reflects employees who stay with the City over
the course of the budget year. Those employees may move from their existing salary step to a higher
salary step. The timing and resulting cost of this movement varies for each position.

Simultaneously, employees who have been with the City for a period of time may vacate their position at a
certain salary step (generally, the salary step is higher the longer the time of service in the position).
Replacements for those employees often are hired at lower salary steps. The resulting cost difference is
the turnover effect.

CHANGE IN NUMBER OF WORKING DAYS

Due to differences between the City’s pay schedule and the calendar year, the number of working days in
a fiscal year can vary by one or two days. The cost impact of this variance is estimated and included in the
Proposed Budget. As 2019-20 contained 262 working days and 2020-21 will contain 261 working days,
this item reflects the reduction of salary funding for one fewer working day.

FULL FUNDING FOR PARTIALLY FINANCED POSITIONS

When new positions are approved, departments may only be provided partial year funding to allow
sufficient time to hire qualified staff. Additionally, departments may have one-time salary reductions in a
given fiscal year to reflect savings generated by positions filled in-lieu, held vacant for employees on long-
term leave, and/or anticipated attrition. This budget item is used during the following budget cycle to
provide departments full funding for those positions and salary accounts that were partially funded in the
prior year.