PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 7, 2021
Debate over money-saving step for
city gets testy on equity, police pay
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Plans to rehire a Keizer Police
Department (KPD) offi cer after submit-
ting his resignation have been snarled at
the Keizer City Council’s dais for the past
three weeks.
The council approved an off er for Sgt.
David LeDay’s continued employment
with KPD at its May 3 meeting, but it was
a narrow 4-3 reversal of a decision from a
prior meeting.
Under normal circumstances the coun-
cil would not be involved in personnel
matters, but in absence of an interim or
full-time city manager, the off er of a new
contract fell to the councilors. It was met
with questions of equity, and disputes
regarding LeDay’s skills and compensa-
tion that, with benefi ts, would amount to
about $190,000 per year.
LeDay’s gross pay is roughly $105,000
as a sergeant for the department, said Tim
Wood, Keizer’s fi nance director and pro
tem city manager.
The core question the council had to
answer before off ering LeDay a new con-
tract after retiring was whether to take
advantage of an action by the Oregon
Legislature to allow PERS-eligible employ-
ees to return to work at the same agency
full-time rather than being limited to
In Keizer’s case,
allowing
the
15
employees in the top
PERS tiers to retire
and then be rehired
would save approxi-
mately $900,000.
“If all the employ-
ees eligible took us
up on the off er, which
I think is unlikely, we
could save $200,000
in
compensation
costs during the next
three years,” said
Wood. “We could
also reduce the city’s unfunded liability by
approximately $700,000.”
At the meeting earlier this week, the
council approved making retirement/
rehiring off ers to eligible employees, but
the specifi c off er to LeDay was contested.
The council voted down the proposal to
off er LeDay a new contract in April by a 4-3
vote, Mayor Cathy Clark and councilors
Ross Day, Kyle Juran and Elizabeth Smith
all opposed the off er initially.
Clark cited concerns about equity and
whether to off er all eligible employees a
similar package. Day had concerns over
the specifi c amount being proposed as
overall compensation and whether the
skills LeDay possesses were worth the cost.
LeDay’s specifi c skillset resides in his
role with the Marion County Crash Team,
an interagency task force charged with
investigating “all fatal and major non-fatal
traffi c accidents where a contributing fac-
tor may be criminal in nature.” The team’s
scope of work includes physical violence
and homicides in addition to vehicular
crash reconstruction.
Council approves
move to allow
retirements, then
full-time contracts to
save on PERS costs.
part-time as was previously the case. The
superintendent of the Salem-Keizer School
District recently opted to take an off er sim-
ilar to the ones that were under discussion
for Keizer’s city employees. Making the
off ers has some potential fi nancial benefi ts
for the city.
Allowing employees to retire and
then be rehired under contract allows the
agency to avoid paying 6.5% of a salary
into the PERS fund. In addition, it allows
those savings to be credited against the
city’s unfunded PERS obligations. If the
city were to fold-up overnight, it would still
be on the hook for roughly $11.8 million to
provide for the retirements of employees
who have already retired with the city. The
option for employees to take advantage of
such extended full-time employment sun-
sets at the end of 2024.
The Legislature is allowing state agen-
cies and local governments to off er full-
time contracts as a way to reduce the
number of overall employees whose con-
tributions are at the top of the PERS pen-
sion scale, and thereby reduce the overall
debt of the PERS system.
KPD Chief John Teague said the Crash
Team might only respond to incidents in
Keizer a half-dozen times per year, but
access to the team as a whole and LeDay’s
expertise in informing whether to prose-
cute certain crimes were within expected
compensation for his experience.
Even if LeDay were replaced with a new
sergeant, without the Crash Team train-
ing, the savings would not be as notice-
able, said Wood and Teague. LeDay will
be training another KPD offi cer to become
part of the Crash Team until his employ-
ment with the city ends.
Day was unmoved.
“Has the city evaluated whether it
would be less expensive to outsource these
duties than the $190,000 we will commit to
him as a contract employee?” he asked.
Day called the process “a complete
mess” and suggested the council take a
step back and possibly even hold a public
hearing.
Smith said she didn’t want to make a
decision without having a representative
from the city’s human resources depart-
ment present.
The calls to delay, ignited a terse
response from Teague who said LeDay had
been “strung along since February” and
the council should be off ering a one-year
contract for continued employment.
Day told Teague he was out-of-line and
that the council was “trying to fi gure this
mess out.”
Teague retorted, “It’s nothing personal
and I don’t think you should take off ense.”
The council approved off ering LeDay
a one year contract in a 4-3 vote, Clark
switched her position after ensuring all eli-
gible employees would be off ered similar
packages.
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