NOTA officials increase wages ‘across the board,’ disagree over proposed 25 percent hikes for director, operations mgr.

Pay raises were granted to all North Oakland Transportation Authority (NOTA) employees last week, but only after a debate among officials.

The NOTA board voted 5-4 to give a 5 percent raise, “across the board,” to all employees next year, including the 28 drivers (24 part-time and four full-time), two dispatchers, head dispatcher, operations manager and executive director.

“I think that’s more than adequate. That’s what I’m going to give my employees at my township,” said NOTA Board Member Bruce Pearson, supervisor of Addison Township.

Pearson made the motion because he feels 5 percent is “more than fair.”

The board then passed a second motion, in a 9-0 vote, to increase the wages of the drivers and dispatchers by an additional 2.53 percent, which, when combined with the 5 percent, will take them from $13.95 to $15 per hour next year. For the head dispatcher, the total 7.53 percent raise means increasing the hourly wage from $15 to $16.13.

NOTA Board Member Bill Dunn, supervisor of Oxford Township, made the second motion. He felt the drivers deserved additional money because they have “a lot more responsibility” than some other jobs that pay similar wages.

According to NOTA Executive Director Lynn Gustafson, 65 percent of all wages paid by NOTA are covered by the various grants it receives.

NOTA provides publicly-subsidized transportation for senior citizens, individuals with disabilities and low-income folks living in Oxford, Addison and Orion townships along with their respective villages. Between January and September of this year, NOTA gave more than 31,600 rides and traveled 407,120 miles.

Prior to approving these raises, NOTA officials discussed a proposal to increase the salaries of Gustafson and Operations Manager Doug Noaker by 25 percent.

Under this, Gustafson’s annual pay would have increased from $57,000 to $71,250, while Noaker’s salary would have gone from $44,100 to $55,125 per year.

The proposed 25 percent increases were based on a few factors. One was a compensation review conducted by EctoHR, a human resource outsourcing and consulting firm based in Brighton.

Based on its findings, EctoHR recommended minimum, midpoint and maximum salaries for each position. For the executive director position, the firm recommended a minimum annual pay of $55,000, a midpoint salary of $85,000 and a maximum of $115,000. For the operations manager, EctoHR recommended $40,000 as a minimum annual salary for the job along with $60,000 for the midpoint and $80,000 for the maximum.

“We’re saying to be competitive and find talent, we trust that recommendation,” said Christy Conn, director of human resources at EctoHR. “But obviously, you’re free to make your own judgment on that.”’

The other factors were the wage history and additional duties taken on by Gustafson and Noaker over the years.

Prior to early 2012, Gustafson earned $20,000 annually handling NOTA’s accounting and grant writing. NOTA paid this amount to Gustafson in addition to $50,000 per year for the previous director, for a total of $70,000.

When Gustafson became director, which is a 30-hour-per week position with health insurance, in March 2012, she continued to do the accounting work and grant writing in addition to her new duties. For all of this, she was paid $50,000 annually to start. Gustafson received that amount until 2015 when she got a 2 percent raise. Over the next four years, she received three more 2 percent raises and a 5 percent hike, resulting in her current salary of $57,000 per year.

“I haven’t charged any extra for that (accounting and grant writing) work,” Gustafson told the board.

As for Noaker, he is a full-time employee who receives no benefits. When he started in January 2013, his annual salary was $30,000. Since 2016, Noaker has received four raises that have resulted in his current salary of $44,100.

Gustafson noted Noaker handles all of the Information Technology (IT) work for NOTA, which saves the authority “thousands” of dollars. She said when NOTA solicited IT proposals from outside firms, the “minimum” quote was $99 per hour. “The average (price) is $170 (per hour),” Gustafson said.

Despite the basis for the proposed 25 percent raises, some NOTA officials felt it was too much to give at one time.

According to Pearson, he talked with some of his taxpayers about it.

“They’re not very happy about this and I, myself, am not very happy,” he said.

Pearson believes if NOTA has to “catch up” with regard to the salaries for these two positions, “we can’t do it overnight.”

“It’s got to be (done) in small steps,” he said.

Dunn expressed his concern that handing out such large pay raises would not sit well with residents. “I’m afraid what the citizens are going to think about this,” he said.

Dunn feared if NOTA does this, “the next time” it has to put a millage proposal on the ballot, “it won’t have a frickin’ prayer” and its failure will lead to the authority’s “demise.”

NOTA Board Member Mike McDonald, president of Leonard Village, expressed his preference for the 5 percent raise because of how a 25 percent raise might be perceived by the public. He pointed out that earlier this year, NOTA spent $1.1 million on a 20,000-square-foot building in Oxford Village to house its operations and its currently in the midst of spending approximately $500,000 more to renovate it. He feared this, combined with 25 percent raises, could give the “appearance” that NOTA is “spending money left and right.”

While McDonald didn’t support a 25 percent raise, he did favor giving a 5 percent increase because it would show “we value the employees, all of the employees.”

It should be noted the money used for the building’s purchase and renovation is from NOTA’s fund balance, which was $2.6 million at the beginning of the year. According to Gustafson, after these expenditures, NOTA’s fund balance will be just over $1 million, “plus any extra we have this year.”

NOTA Board Member Chris Barnett, supervisor of Orion Township, disagreed with his fellow officials. He supported the proposed 25 percent increases.

“We’re actually adjusting the wage (to) what it should be, in my opinion,” he said.

To Barnett, if residents are simply told that two employees are being given 25-percent raises, “of course, they’re going to be ticked off.”

“But, I don’t think that’s the whole picture,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair for us to say that.”

Based on EctoHR’s recommendation, Barnett said, “I don’t think you could argue with the data that they’re grossly underpaid.”

Handing out 5 percent raises is “nice,” according to Barnett, but NOTA needs to make sure the compensation it provides is “competitive” with other organizations in order “to attract good talent and keep them.” Right now, he said, “I don’t think we are (competitive).”

Barnett didn’t understand why NOTA would hire a human resources firm to conduct a study, then disregard its findings and approve an “arbitrary” amount.

“If we know better than the experts, then we shouldn’t pay the experts to do the work for us in the future,” he told his fellow officials. “We should just save the money.”

With regard to McDonald’s mention of the spending on NOTA’s new building, Barnett felt it was not appropriate to bring that up because that’s a “totally separate” issue from wages. He said “the board made a decision to purchase this building” because, long term, it was in NOTA’s best interest to do so.

However, Barnett noted that since NOTA has agreed to lease 10,000 square feet of its new building to a private company (see related story), it will be up to Gustafson and Noaker to manage the rental space, so that’s “one more thing (to add to) their job descriptions.”

Pearson pointed out that NOTA has been consistently giving raises to its employees over the years. “It’s not like we’re sitting on our hands and not giving anybody any money. We’ve given a lot of money,” he said.

A motion to review employee wages after NOTA moves into its new headquarters was approved in a 9-0 vote.