The city is considering a plan that would change how employees are compensated.

The plan would update chapter three of the Municipal Code, which covers job descriptions, powers of appointed employees, compensation and payment plans. The plan was devised by the accounting firm Sikich. It aims to ensure supervisors earn a just amount compared to who they supervise, implementing a 40-hour work week and adjusting the amount of compensation paid to bargaining and non-bargaining employees.

The plan is meant to properly compensate employees who do not benefit from collective bargaining agreements while saving taxpayers money, according to material provided to the council at the Monday meeting.

The last compensation study for non-bargaining employees was conducted in 2003, said City Manager Anne Marie Gaura.

There are 40 full-time and 27 part-time employees who are non-bargaining employees and the rest of the city’s employees benefit from collective bargaining agreements. For every dollar non-bargaining employees receive in compensation, bargaining employees are provided a $1.35 raise, Gaura said.

Under current regulations, many non-bargaining positions are supervisors or managers, but some of the employees being supervised make more than the supervisor. The new plan will address this issue of junior employees making more than their seniors, among other issues.

To fix the compensation issue, the new plan would implement a 40-hour work week that will increase office hours and work time by 4,290 hours without the need to hire extra staff, according to the material provided to the council. Currently, compensatory time accrued is paid to employees when they leave the city or retire at their current wage. This plan would work to ensure deferred compensation will go to employees exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act, and overtime can be paid to the non-exempt employees under the act with the 40-hour work week.

First ward Alderman David Jacobson, who refused to vote, said there will be a 17.5 percent raise for people making more than $100,000 over a period of two and a half years.

“The reality is that it’s not cost-savings for our residents,” Jacobson said. “The reality is that most of these employees are already full-time employees.”

Jacobson said he wanted to find a more cost-effective way to get workers to a 40-hour work week while lowering compensation payouts.

Fourth ward Alderman Bob Snow, citing his background in accounting, said the plan would save the city money. Snow is an associate of DeKalb accounting firm Jacobson & Snow Ltd., 650 N. Peace Road.

Rather than the dollar amount being spent or saved, DeKalb resident Bessie Chronopoulos was worried about the powers the council would be giving up by superseding chapter three of the municipal code.

“The fact that you’re going to go in there and start changing chapter three and pretty much eliminating it, that has broad ramifications,” Chronopoulos said.

Chronopoulos asked what kind of leverage the council would have in order to watch over the budget without chapter three being in place.

DeKalb Mayor John Rey said there is a personnel manual in process and there will be a benefits handbook in regard to the new plan. He said they would all be under the “purview of City Council.”