As reported in the post, all PMUA employees, including management, faced a wage freeze in 2014. No one was to receive a cost of living increase or merit pay. The freeze could be lifted if conditions improved.
Still, there was talk of need for a "chief of operations" as the authority continues to expand outside contracts.
Also noted, "Another reason stated for the need of a COO is that about 45 employees, mostly at the transfer station are in negotiations to form a union. The employees aim to join Teamsters Local 97."
So there you have it. Because I missed so many meetings, I don't have an update. You can read the entire post here and you can read PMUA minutes for yourself here.
That January post also broke the news of the lawsuit filed by former PMUA Chief Financial Officer James Perry. There is no update on that right now, either.
Each year, the City Council assigns liaisons to various boards, commissions and other entities including the PMUA. These liaisons are supposed to attend meetings and report back to the council. Some past liaisons have acted more as advocates for the PMUA than members of the governing body charged with bringing back information to the full council. Some just don't attend. Many times there are just a few members of the public in attendance at PMUA meetings.
If you want to see what Plainfield Plaintalker or Plaintalker II posted about the PMUA, go to the links and use the search box in the upper left corner. Plainfield Plaintalker has posts from June 2005 through May 2010 and Plaintalker II covers May 2010 to present. There are some overlaps from when I pressed the wrong button on Blogger. If you are new to Plainfield or just getting interested in a civic role, the archives may provide background on the issues for you. For me, the archives tell me stuff I forgot! Now that I am officially old (over 75), I can't keep all this stuff (about 5,000 posts) in my head!
--Bernice
Let's do some analysis of the COO and "outside business" issues. The PMUA reports that based on !.5 million dollars in new sales it is netting between 200K and 250 K. Using the more probable 200K this yields a net profit of about 15%, Not bad, but no home run. I would like to review the analysis and see if the costs attributed to this operation include such items as administrative overhead, depreciation and maintenance of equipment used in the performance of the new work? Putting this aside let's consider the cost of a COO. This auspicious title suggests that the compensation package, salary plus employer side benefits, which are substantial, could yield a new $100,000 cost; perhaps more? This is approximately half of the reported current new net income. After all the hype, the great effort spanning years to obtain permission to use the Rock Avenue facility for the enlarged service, and soliciting 1.5 million in new business, it appears that we have played an almost zero sum game.
ReplyDeleteLastly, things seem to be operating satisfactorily, yielding a 200K to 250K profit...what is wrong with the manner in which the operation is currently being administered? What initiatives can the new COO provide to increase the bottom line? Let's ask any candidate that is nominated this question.
My anticipation is that this is a done deal, the candidate has been selected and will in short order be employed. Bill Kruse
An after thought. No one with so grandiose a title can function properly with at least an assistant, and later a staff. Bill Kruse
ReplyDeleteI suspect the Total Cash Compensation (salary plus the cash value for all benefits) for a PMUA Chief Operations Officer would be substantially higher that $100K. A good rule for thumb calculate the cash value of a benefits package is between 45% to 50% of the employees salary. Considering when Eric Watson resigned from the PMUA as Executive Director almost three years ago his base salary was $156,000.00. In addition, his benefits included; 70 paid days off a year, a car allowance, full medical/dental/prescription drug coverage, tuition reimbursement, up to $4,000 of job related expense reimbursements, Public Employees Retirement System benefits, and be eligible for merit increases. Using a 50% benefits calculator, Eric Watson's Total Cash Compensation for 2011 was approximately $230,000. If the proposed COO receives a salary of about $100K, his or her TCC would be about $150K.
ReplyDeleteTom Kaercher
Add the anticipated price of the golden parachute, currently appraised at $1 million.
ReplyDelete