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Goal 5: Put People First

Strategy 5.3: Recruit, Recognize and Reward Quality City Staff

The City of Keller knows that the key to our services and success is our employees. Our community
receives an average of two awards or honors monthly for municipal excellence, which is the direct result
of the hard work and dedication of staff.

Accordingly, the FY 2021‐22 Adopted Budget includes maintaining the sustainable 2% step plan increase
for sworn public safety personnel that was implemented in FY 2016‐17. Police officers, firefighter/EMTs,
firefighter/paramedics, the fire marshal and the fire training officer will receive a 3% market adjustment
as well, combining for a 5% raise for these positions (step plus market). All other sworn positions will
receive a 1.5% market adjustment, totaling a 3.5% raise. Additionally, civilian employees will receive a 4%
merit‐based raise.

These compensation proposals included in the FY 2021‐22 Adopted Budget would be awarded to eligible
employees at the start of next fiscal year, Oct. 1, and would result in a $905,024 investment in our
workforce.

The budget increases city staff by 1.75 full‐time equivalents between the Police Department, as previously
discussed, and The Keller Pointe.

At The Keller Pointe, the FY 2021‐22 Adopted Budget includes reclassifying the Marketing Specialist
position from part‐time (0.5 FTE) to full‐time (1.0 FTE). As The Pointe continues to recover from COVID‐
related impacts, this position will help to recruit new members and enhance the marketing reach of the
various programing opportunities.

It should be noted that the number of employees for FY 2021‐22 is 343.89 FTEs, far below the 369 FTEs
on staff back in 2009 when our population was 20% smaller than it is today. I believe this shows the
commitment by staff to operate as efficiently as possible.

Part of recruiting quality city staff is providing excellent benefits. The FY 2021‐22 Adopted Budget includes
a shift to the use of a self‐insurance model for health and dental benefits. This means rather than paying
an insurance company, the city retains the money in the budget and pays the claims directly from the
city’s budget while using an outside third‐party administrator to process the claims on the city’s behalf.
This helps the city to avoid overpaying for administration and related overhead costs. More importantly,
the self‐insurance model allows for greater control over the costs related to health care and empowers
the employees to take ownership of the plan as a way to minimize future costs.

As part of this shift, the city is changing vendors to Blue Cross Blue Shield, but all other aspects of city
employee health‐related benefits will remain the same for the upcoming year. Our main goal related to
the first‐year implementation of the self‐funded insurance model is to ensure that healthcare continues
in a seamless fashion for all city employees. In future years, the health plan will be designed in part by a
Wellness Committee made of employees and will focus on encouraging healthy lifestyles to reduce overall
health costs. For FY 2021‐22, the Self‐Insurance Fund budget is $4,541,645 and is the first year the fund
will be active. However, the fund has an estimated fund balance of $4,642,147 from salary savings from
prior years. The decision to move to self‐insurance has been discussed over several years and City Council

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