Sugar Land moves to step program for public safety personnel

The step plan aims to improve employee recruitment and retention by recognizing employee dedication and commitment, Director of People and Culture Paula Kutchka said.

“We found that we were increasingly struggling to attract talent,” she said. “Further, we were risking the loss of talent [of] both current employees and possible future hires to agencies who highlighted their compensation commitment through career progression steps.”

By the numbers

After seeing a change in the compensation landscape in spring 2023, City Council directed staff to complete a compensation study, Kutchka said.

The compensation study showed Sugar Land police officers are making $20,000 less annually than the market, while firefighters are making $15,000 under the average, City Manager Mike Goodrum said.

“I do not believe that we have paid for merit; you look at our most successful police officers and they are not paid any different than lower performing ones,” he said.

The step program sets the minimum pay for police officers, firefighters and dispatchers as $75,605, $71,490 and $55,016, respectively, according to agenda documents.

What else?

Outside of public safety, the plan also outlines pay for city employees with a minimum of $40,602 annually. City employees will still remain on the open-range plan for pay, Kutchka said.

To see pay grades for specific city positions, click here.

What they’re saying

Mayor Joe Zimmerman said it was essential the city make changes to its public safety pay before it falls further behind other entities in the area.

“We have known ... since 2020 that we need to address compensation,” he said. “The urgency I have is we have put it off long enough, we need to get with the program.”

Although City Council ultimately approved the plan, multiple council members, including Stewart Jacobson, Suzanne Whatley and William Ferguson, said they felt it was being rushed.

“We have not had time to look at this and understand this,” Whatley said. “Approving this scares me, frankly, that we are going to have a budget that we have a deficit in, and then we will have to look at a tax increase when we all know we don’t want to do that in front of a bond election.”

However, Goodrum said the city is not looking to fund the pay increases through a tax increase.

“This is not bringing our employees to like the 100th percentile, the 90th, the 80th, it’s bringing [them] to market,” he said. “It is fundamental to what we’re trying to do and that we will find the efficiencies.”

Looking ahead

The plan will go into effect the next pay period on Aug. 3, Kutchka said.

Meanwhile, city staff will need to work the compensation plan into the fiscal year 2024-25 budget to ensure it can support the $8.8 million additional annual price tag. Budget workshops will begin Aug. 8, Zimmerman said.