Attention needed – now – to employee study
In his successful 2024 election campaign, newly-installed Bloomfield Township Supervisor Mike McCready emphasized that the township was falling behind in hiring the best police officers, firemen and other employees to staff the numerous departments with over 400 positions and make Bloomfield Township a desirable community to live and work in. On November 11, a long-overdue compensation and benefits study was presented to the board of trustees, and the results confirmed McCready's beliefs – according to Management Advisory Group International, Bloomfield Township has lost ground to other communities in respect to competitive pay.
In addition, the study shows that sick time, paid time off and holiday leave are slightly lower for Bloomfield Township employees than market totals.
And that is unacceptable.
Until the last few years, Bloomfield Township, a charter township which is located approximately 20 miles north of the city of Detroit in Oakland County, with a population of over 44,000 residents, had been considered a top local municipality in terms of salary and benefits. There are four pay structures that currently exist in the township: fire, police, elected officials and unified – meaning anyone not in the other categories. Recently, there have been significant vacancies at several departments, with notable difficulties reported in hiring qualified police officers, as well as certain other departments. We have heard that the police department has lost candidates to fellow local departments like Birmingham and West Bloomfield, and former Supervisor Dani Walsh had floated the idea of dropping certain standards for recruits rather than increasing pay and benefits.
Walsh's idea of lowering the quality of employees hired to justify a decline in compensation is antithetical to the values of Bloomfield Township, which has historically paid top dollar for qualified top personnel. Without a question, those living in Bloomfield Township have long expected as much – it is an affluent community whose residents may pay high property taxes and other millages, such as for public safety, but expect a return on their investments in the form of excellent local municipal services.
Dr. Russell Campbell, senior vice president of Management Advisory Group International, Inc. (MAGI) said when presenting the compensation study, when an organization has good benefits and their compensation structure is at least the 75th percentile, they’re considered an employer of choice. Ideally, every employee should be paid at the 85th percentile for their job.
McCready said that Bloomfield Township has to figure out ways to keep their people, and improving compensation and certain suggested benefits, such as possibly parental leave policy and pay for certifications/licensure attainment, “is one way to do it.” He said he intends to have conversations with employees to hear what they want in order to stay in their positions, and to reach out to former employees, especially department heads, to determine what would entice them to return to Bloomfield Township.
While in a perfect world, pensions would once again be provided for the valued employees, that ship has sailed for everyone employed by municipalities and school districts. If nothing else, the massive bankruptcy of the city of Detroit in 2013-2014 provided glaring evidence of why municipal pensions are absolutely unsustainable.
Another area of concern was the way the compensation study was disbursed, as well as its timing. In a municipality where a leader and its board have a mutually respectful relationship, a document such as the compensation study would have been provided to the board of trustees with the trustees packet, at least 48 hours prior to the meeting. In this instance, trustees received it as it was being presented at the board meeting, without being able to see it in advance. However, township employees had been sent it earlier in the day. That seems to us, in a hierarchical scheme, purposely backwards.
It was also presented at Walsh's final board of trustees meeting of her four-year term, although it was prepared, and revised numerous times by people in the township, prior to presentation. What was in the original document – and why was it repeatedly altered? We expect the new board of trustees, along with McCready, clerk Martin Brook and treasurer Michael Schostak, to examine all previous incarnations of this document and take them to heart, working together to improve the employment situation in Bloomfield Township for the benefit of everyone.
