Attached are documents used by reporter Allen Baker in his article on the City's compensation study in the June 10, 2010, issue of the Ashland Sneak Preview.

Summary of Salaries and Benefits

Picking the consultant

The Ashland city council went along with City Administrator Martha Bennett’s suggestion for the classification and compensation study two years ago, and proposals were due in October of 2008.

The city actively solicited proposals from consultants around the region and beyond. There were 13 that came in.

Some bids were two-inch-thick thick binders with lots of filler. Others were fairly simple.

Three bids were in the $25,000 to $35,000 area. Four firms wanted to charge $70,000 to nearly $100,000. Four were around $40,000 to $50,000, including the one from CPS Human Resource Services, at $51,660.

Bennett, Finance Director Lee Tuneberg, and Human Resources Director Tina Gray read and ranked the proposals independently on a point system. Price, or ``fee arrangement’’ was one of the criteria, but only 20 points on a 100-point scale.

The three managers all gave CPS their highest mark. The city did check some references, but didn’t do any interviews, Bennett said.

``They seemed like the best value for the money when we went through the process,’’ Bennett related. ``There was a wide diversity of qualifications, and a wide range of costs.’’

While the city has a good handle on consultants for engineering work and the like, there was no past experience on this kind of service, she said.

CPS is a quasi-state agency affiliated with the California government. Its proposal said the firm had $132 million in revenue the prior year.

As the study progressed, California ran into budget problems of its own, and so did CPS.

``In the middle of our study, they went through a lot of changes,’’ Bennett said, including the departure of the person who had done most of the Ashland work.

There were delays and quality problems both, the city manager said.

``There are some things we’re saving,’’ she said. ``I wouldn’t use this firm again.’’

--Allen Baker