Columbus is allowing its departments to offer relocation payments of up to $10,000 to candidates for high-level city positions.
The Columbus City Council approved a resolution Tuesday to “adopt a discretionary relocation lump sum incentive payment policy for senior-level, department head new hire exempt employees.”
“In today’s economy, hiring has become extremely competitive, and so we have been reviewing ways to attract qualified candidates, particularly at our high-level department positions, senior positions,” said Executive Director of Administration and Community Development Mary Ferdon. “As a municipality, we really can’t compete with a lot of the perks that private industry can offer, but we were looking at any barriers that we could remove.”
The resolution comes amid a search for a new Columbus City Utilities executive director. The city and utilities board terminated previous director Scott Dompke’s employment due to a “difference of management style and philosophy,” as city attorney Alan Whitted put it in a recent statement.
Dompke left employment with the city on Feb. 26. His predecessor, Keith Reeves, has stepped in as interim director during the candidate search.
The utilities board voted in March to recommend that city council look into reimbursement of moving expenses for the position. Reeves said then that Smith & Syberg, the firm engaged to begin the job search, indicated that the absence of this benefit was a handicap to attracting quality applicants.
Melinda Burton, executive administrative assistant at the utilities department, said at the time that that board’s recommendation to city council only pertained “to our director position and no other staff.”
City councilman Tim Shuffett, who is the liaison to utility board, said that having the ability to offer relocation expenses is a “critical piece” that will help the department expand its pool of candidates.
The city’s approved resolution is not just limited to the utilities director position, however. It applies to “A) senior-level, exempt employees, who are new hires to the City of Columbus and are at department-head level rank reporting directly to a board, commission, or the mayor; and B) are applicants who reside outside Indiana or in a county not adjacent to or in Bartholomew County and must relocate within six months to comply with the City of Columbus residency requirement as employees.”
The resolution establishes the policy of a one-time, new hire, lump sum relocation incentive payment paid directly to qualifying employees to help “defray but not completely reimburse” the expenses of moving to Bartholomew County or an adjacent county. The city will decide whether to offer such a payment before an opening is posted.
The relocation incentive lump sum payment for an eligible hire is capped at $10,000 in a one-time payment “with all requisite payroll taxes deducted from the capped amount.” Departments can choose to offer payments that are less than that or not offer the payment at all.
“We recognize that for someone coming from California or the East or West Coast, $10,000 would most likely not cover the cost of moving, but it would be an incentive to cover at least some portion,” Ferdon said. She said that the resolution applies to all city departments, including police and fire.
Per the resolution, applicants recruited with such a payment as part of their tentative job offer must meet “meet all background and driving checks, physical, drug and alcohol screening requirements after the offer has been made, before the applicant’s offer is finalized and begins work at the city as a new hire.” These applicants must also provide all required documentation regarding relocation.
In addition, the payment can only be made after the person begins work, is successfully relocated within six months of the hire date, has a new residence, has turned in the proper documentation to human resources and has updated their address with the city and payroll departments.
Applicants offered an incentive payment must also sign an agreement regarding repayment in the event that they do not continue working with the city for at least two years from their start date or are “separated involuntarily as an at-will employee prior to the two-year anniversary.”
Full repayment (100%) is required if the candidate does not work for the city for at least a year. A 50% repayment is required if the candidate does not work for the city for at least two years, according to the resolution.
