A. MEETING CALLED TO ORDER BY THE MAYOR
- Councilor Harrison absent and excused.
B. AGENDA
1. FY2026 Human Resources Update
- During the work session, staff from the Human Resources department provided information on proposed potential benefits and compensation changes for consideration by City Council as part of the FY2026 budget development process. Representative from the consultants also provided an update on the classification and compensation study.
- Staff recommends no changes to current benefits other than enhancing the tuition reimbursement program.
- Across all benchmark classifications, the consultants found the City’s base pay ranges are below the market at the range minimum, midpoint, and maximum.
- Staff will return to Council in April with final results and recommendations.
- Staff vacancy rate is declining.
2. Separation Allowance Update
- In June 2024 Council requested that staff proceed with a separation allowance actuarial study to include 1) Raleigh Fire and Emergency Communications and 2) Operating Departments – Parks and Recreation, Transportation Services, Raleigh Water and Engineering Services. An actuarial study will provide the City with projections of the total cost of the proposed benefit including the annual budget contributions to ensure adequate funding is set aside over time.
- By way of background, an actuarial study is completed by professional experts and is used to determine the total cost of future financial obligations. An actuary utilizes probabilities, demographics, analysis of mortality tables and statistics to determine the financial cost of uncertain future events. The qualified actuarial firm will use best practice methods and assumptions to establish the total cost for the City.
- During the July 2, 2024, Council meeting staff provided a project timeline including the request for proposal process (RFP) to support the completion of the study. As a result of the RFP process, the vendor selected to complete the actuarial study is Boomershine Consulting Group, LLC (BCG).
- During the work session staff from BCG presented their report.
- Total expected City contributions for all groups is estimated to be $227 million over a 20-year period.
- This would accumulate to an estimated $192 million in plan assets over that timeframe, taking into account distributions ($129 million in benefit payments)
- Initial liability for financial reporting (“Total Pension Liability”) would be about $61 million combined.