Eagle Salary Report Gets a D-

The City of Eagle recently spent $22,250 for a study to determine if
its employees were being paid enough. Mayor Bandy frequently referred
to this report in arguing for increasing city employee's salaries.
However, he refused to release the full report to the public. The City
Council ultimately had to vote to require the study to be made
available. Surprise, the study suggests that several employees are
dramatically overpaid.

Perhaps the much deeper problem with the report is the selection of
comparable cities. Should the City of Eagle be compared to the City of
Boise? Boise population is around nine times larger than Eagle. This
would be like comparing a 2,000 square foot house to an 18,000 square
foot house. Using Boise as a comparable might make sense if the
salaries were first adjusted for population differences. This
adjustment was not done in the Mercer report. The report also used
Meridian and Nampa without making size adjustments. By using cities much
larger than Eagle, and failing to make size difference adjustments,
the conclusion is not credible. A regression analysis showing the
relationship of salaries and population should have been used to
establish the basis for making location adjustments.

If the comparable cities are adjusted for population size, the results
are much different. For example, the P&Z Director is paid $82,500. The
population-adjusted survey average is $56,145. This suggests 47% above
the market. The City Clerk is paid $72,646. The population-adjusted
survey average is $49,500. This also suggests 47% above the market.

The Mayor should ask the Mercer Group to refund the $22,250. Or, ask
them to go back and pick cities that are more comparable in size, make
adjustments for population differences, and see what the revised
findings suggest. I'll bet a penny that more City of Eagle employees
are found to be overpaid.