2025 Classification and Compensation Study Request For Proposal.pdf

Release Date: February 7, 2025

Due Date: March 7, 2025

2025 Classification and Compensation Study Request For Proposal

| City of Delafield 2025 Classification and Compensation Study RFP

City of Delafield

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Table of Contents Section 1 – Invitation

Section 2 – Introduction and General Information

Section 3 – Scope of Services

Section 4 – Timeline

Section 5 - Requirements of the Proposal

Section 6 – Selection and Award

Section 7 – Terms and Conditions

Section 1 – Invitation

Request For Proposal (RFP) City of Delafield 2025 Classification and Compensation Study

Summary and Background

The City of Delafield is seeking proposals from qualified consultants to conduct a comprehensive classification and compensation study for select departments of regular full-time and part-time employees. The format must be consistent with the requirements of the RFP. Please provide options that may create efficiencies, make improvements or offer creative solutions for a strategic personnel plan.

Electronic proposal submissions need to be attached to an email with the subject line: “City of Delafield 2025 Classification and Compensation Study Request For Proposal”. Questions or requests for clarification may be directed to Crystal Turner, Deputy Clerk, by phone at (262)-646-6220 or by email to clerksoffice@ci.delafield.wi.us.

Proposals will be accepted until 3:00 PM Friday March 7, 2025, by email to clerksoffice@ci.delafield.wi.us. Responses must clearly address all the items listed in this request for proposal.

After the date of the award, non-disclosure of the data contained within a proposal cannot be guaranteed because of Public Records Laws.

mailto:clerksoffice@ci.delafield.wi.us

Section 2 – Introduction and General Information

About the City of Delafield

The City of Delafield is located in western Waukesha County, about a twenty-minute drive west of the City of Milwaukee. Located in southeastern Wisconsin’s Lake Country area, the City provides many high-quality recreational opportunities. Lake Nagawicka is located in the City of Delafield and the City also includes frontage on the east and south shores of Upper Nashotah Lake. The Bark River runs through the City and Lapham Peak State Park is located immediately adjacent to the City limits. The Ice Age Trail, one of only eleven National Scenic Trails in the country, runs through the City of Delafield and the City is one of twenty-four official Ice Age Trail Communities in the state. The City benefits from extremely high-quality public schools and is home to the historic and prestigious St.

John’s Northwestern Academies. The City boasts a charming, quaint, and desirable downtown area with a historic theme and inviting atmosphere for restaurants, shopping, office space, and multi-family residential living. The City is conveniently located between Milwaukee and Madison along the I-94 corridor and includes major commercial areas at the I-94/STH 83 and US Hwy 16/STH 83 interchange areas.

The City of Delafield’s current population is 7,185. The City encompasses a total area of 11.05 square miles, including 9.41 square miles of land area and 1.64 square miles of water area. The City was incorporated on July 10, 1959, and operates under the Council/Administrator form of government.

The City is governed by a seven-member Common Council and Mayor.

The City employs approximately 63 employees, 39 full-time employees and approx. 24 part-time and seasonal employees. The Police Department’s Detective, Sergeants and Officers are represented by a union. Employees are paid on a bi-weekly basis and are eligible for various benefit programs, including, but not limited to, health, dental, vision, and life insurance. Full time and some eligible part time employees are eligible for vacation, personal days and sick day benefits.

The most recent compensation study was completed in 2003.

Project Purpose

The City’s goal for the study is to review recommendations related to the following:

• Personnel Structure. Review departmental staffing structure to identify innovative and strategic solutions for optimizing workforce efficiency.

• Compensation Equity (Internal and external). Necessary to attract and retain qualified and quality employees. Employee retention is especially important with lean staffing, where losing significant institutional knowledge often results in significant setbacks in efficiency and consistency.

• Benefit Review. Inclusive benefit cost analysis and identify creative opportunities for the City to consider.

• Develop a performance-based compensation plan. Create a compensation structure that encourages high performance and employee development. Implementing a pay structure to encourage employees to attain certification and credentialing specific to their department and/or role and that can transition into a merit-based form of compensation.

Additionally, it is important to consider equity with the Police Union Contract (Represented employees) to ensure fairness.

Section 3 – Scope of Services

Project Scope

The study shall evaluate the City’s present salary and benefit structure as compared to the specific job market for comparable positions in the public sector. For the purpose of the Compensation and Classification study, the term benefit is all inclusive of the following: paid time off to include, but not limited to, vacation time, personal days, sick time and compensatory time, Health Insurance, Dental Insurance, Life Insurance, HRA reimbursements and Wisconsin Retirement System contributions.

The study will focus on the following positions:

• Administration: Administrator/Director of Public Works, City Clerk, Finance Officer/Treasurer, Deputy Clerk-Treasurer, Administrative and Billing Clerk (6)

• Department of Public Works (DPW): Foreman, Advanced Laborer, Laborer, Part time/Seasonal (4)

• Police Department: Chief, Lieutenant, Captain, Detective, Sergeant, Officer, Admin Exempt, Admin Non-Exempt (8)

Each non-represented job should be evaluated based on, but not limited to, the following factors:

• Education, preparation and training required

• Experience required

• Decision making and independent judgement

• Responsibility for policy development

• Planning and contact with others

• Supervisory responsibilities

• Adverse working conditions.

• Existing premium pay

Positions will then be placed into a job grade or step level accordingly, with higher levels corresponding to relatively higher compensation. Ensuring internal equity between job classifications within the organization.

The study will review the compensation of the Police Department represented positions to assist the City in determining compensation structure in the future.

The consultant shall perform or provide the following:

A. Evaluate the City’s present salary and benefit structure as compared to the job market for comparable positions in the private sector. The consultant shall perform or provide the following:

i. Conduct meetings with all current employees and appropriate supervisory and Department Head personnel, as required, to obtain feedback on the current compensation and benefit plan utilized by the City. The expectation is that Department Heads will be individual meetings, while group meetings will be held for all other employees to ensure efficiency.

ii. Provide materials appropriate to share with City employees.

iii. Identify appropriate comparable communities in southern Wisconsin and develop a scoring rubric to objectively determine which communities are most relevant for comparison

iv. Conduct salary surveys for similar positions with the identified comparable municipalities.

B. Review and/or create all current job descriptions.

i. Work with staff to review and assess current job descriptions. The City estimates that there are nineteen job descriptions that will be included in this study with approximately four having been updated in the last 3 years.

ii. Review and assess current position description format and provide recommendations on updating the template used for position descriptions.

iii. Develop uniform language to be used as a base template for all position descriptions.

iv. Assist the City in making system wide changes to address equity within all position descriptions.

C. Review/create, analyze, and document all current job classifications.

i. Evaluate positions based on FLSA exemption criteria.

ii. Review all current job classifications and analyze, document and validate same for knowledge, skills, essential functions, education and experience relevance and hierarchical consistency, job definition, distinguishing characteristics, supervision received and exercised, specific requirements including licensing and certification requirements.

iii. Make recommendations on establishing a salary philosophy that is competitive within the market while also being transparent to the organization and employees.

iv. Evaluate and identify potential pay compression issues and provide alternative solutions.

D. Assist the City in evaluating and recommending a total compensation system. Reviewing its current compensation system and new opportunities for improvement in order to make recommendations to ensure the City has a compensation system that meets the needs of the City in fairness, internal equity, competitive compensation, and ease of administration.

i. Establishing appropriate comparable benchmarking within the public sector that the City can use moving forward.

ii. Compare benefits with comparable municipalities and offer creative and forward-looking solutions to retain and attract talent.

iii. Assist the City in implementing a transparent wage structure that recognizes employee certifications, licenses and training in order to move from a standard annual increase to a merit-based increase with COLA.

Consideration will need to be given to preserve the internal equity between the represented and non-represented employees. Utilizing the current police contract as the baseline.

iv. Train Administrative staff in the implementation of a standardized wage structure based on merit and/or COLA increase.

v. Evaluate the City’s current performance evaluation processes and make recommendations to ensure the process aligns appropriately with the compensation plan and it is easy for employees and supervisors/department heads to implement. The tool should also emphasize creating a meaningful process for evaluation that allows for consistency, awards exemplary performance or other significant employee contribution and trust organization wide.

vi. Provide recommendations for policy updates, as necessary, if the City decides to implement changes from the compensation and classification study.

E. Identify and comment on staffing organizational structure.

i. Provide innovative or strategic alternatives for administrative and support roles for the Clerk’s Office and DPW.

F. Support a comment period for all employees to review and provide feedback on the study.

Integrate the comments, as necessary, into the final report to be presented to the Common Council.

G. Prepare a final report for review with City staff and present it to the Common Council.

i. Provide implementation support for the compensation plan.

ii. Review budgetary implications over the next five years.

City Resources

The City will provide copies of all pay ranges, job classifications, job descriptions, previous studies, Handbook, and any other available in-house information that the successful consultant may require to complete the study.

Section 4 – Timeline

RFP Timeline

All proposals in response to this RFP are due no later than 3:00pm CST on Friday March 7, 2025. All proposals shall be valid for a minimum of 90 days, pending the City's evaluation and award process.

The evaluation of proposals will be conducted starting March 10, 2025. If additional information or discussions are needed with any respondents during this window, the consultants will be notified.

The following tentative schedule will be followed. If the City finds it necessary to change any specific dates and times, it will do so by issuing amendments to this RFP. Failure by the City to issue amendments to this schedule will not invalidate the selection process:

Action Estimated Dates RFP issued February 7, 2025 – March 7, 2025 Review of proposals and selection process by City staff. May include interviews with the consultants

March 10, 2025 – April 20, 2025

Presentation of finalists to Common Council April 21, 2025 Agreement with Finalist April 22, 2025 – April 30, 2025 Study Period May 1, 2025 – July 11, 2025 Present draft report to staff July 28, 2025 Open comment period to all employees August 1, 2025 - August 8, 2025 Complete final report to include staff/employee comments

August 9, 2025 - August 17, 2025

In-person presentation of final report to Common Council

August 18, 2025

Section 5 – Requirements of the Proposal

Proposal Requirements

Before submitting a proposal, each consultant shall familiarize itself with the entire RFP. The consultant is responsible for fully understanding the requirements of a subsequent agreement for services and shall otherwise satisfy itself as to the expense and difficulties accompanying the fulfillment of agreement requirements. The submission of a proposal will constitute a representation of compliance by the consultant. There will be no subsequent financial adjustment for lack of such familiarization.

The evaluation and selection of a consultant will be based on the information submitted in the proposal, plus references, any required interviews/presentations, and other pertinent factors, as may arise or be determined. Consultants should respond clearly and completely to all requirements.

Failure to respond to each of the requirements in the RFP may be the basis for rejecting a submittal.

The proposal shall:

A. Provide the official name, address, phone number, and email of the consulting firm, as well as the name of the principal contact person and the name of the person authorized to execute the contract.

B. Identify the qualifications of the consultant and any sub-consultants, including relevant projects.

C. Provide a list of at least three (3) recent client references, where the firm has performed a comprehensive classification and compensation study of at least similar size and scope, along with reference contact name and title, telephone number and email address at each entity.

D. Identify the project manager and principal individuals(s), qualifications, and experience of those proposed to do the work.

E. Define the project approach and identify the specific tasks involved. Detailed description of the services and methods by which the work set forth in the RFP will be performed. The description shall include the following items:

i. Consultant’s understanding of the services to be provided.

ii. Methodology to be used in benchmarking and determining salary ranges.

iii. The project’s estimated time it will take from contract date to completion date.

iv. Describe the approach to the proposed work effort and the means by which these tasks would be implemented. Format as an answer to each of the 7 points (A-G) outlined in the Scope of Work in this RFP.

F. Price proposal. Identify the firm-fixed-price of the project. The City assumes no responsibility for the payment of subcontractors that may arise out of a proposal or subsequent agreement.

G. All prospective consultants shall provide a copy of the applicable contractor license and proof of vendor's insurance.

Questions

Questions for the City should be gathered into one email communication from the prospective consultant and submitted to the Deputy Clerk at clerksoffice@ci.delafield.wi.us . All inquiries must be received by 9:00am Thursday, March 6, 2025. All inquiries made by prospective consultants will be answered by the City and will be submitted to all interested parties in order to ensure that all parties are operating with the same information.

Incurring Cost

The City is not liable for any cost, fee, or expense incurred by any of the consultants in replying to this RFP, whether selected or not. Each proposing consultant shall protect, defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the City from any and all liability, claims, and expenses, whosoever incurred by, or on behalf of the entity participating in the preparation of its response to this RFP. Such non-reimbursable, pre-agreement costs, fees, and expenses include, but are not limited to, each of the following:

1. Preparing the proposal and related information in response to this RFP

2. Negotiations with the City on any matter related to this procurement.

3. Costs associated with interviews, meetings, travel, or presentations.

4. All other expenses incurred by proposing consultant prior to the date of an award and a formal notice to proceed.

Withdrawal of submittals

Proposing consultants may withdraw a submittal, in writing, at any time up to the due date and time.

The written withdrawal notice must be received timely by the Deputy Clerk. The notice must be signed by an authorized representative of the consultant.

Non-Discrimination Clause

Consultants must affirm that they do not discriminate against any individual because of race, religion, sex, color, age, handicap, or national origin and that these shall not be a factor in consideration for employment, selection of training, promotion, transfer, recruitment, rates or pay, or other forms of compensation, demotion, or separation.

Section 6 – Selection and Award

Review of Submittals

The City’s evaluation committee may include the City Administrator, City Clerk, Deputy Clerk, City Attorney, Common Council, and other relevant City staff members.

The City of Delafield will evaluate all proposals based on the qualifications of the consultants, the ability of the consultant to meet the schedule requirements, and price.

The evaluation committee will review the proposal and references and may request interviews/presentations. The resulting information will be used to rate the submittals. The evaluation committee reserves the right to make a selection based on submittals without scheduling interviews. The evaluation committee’s scoring will be tabulated and submittals ranked based on the numerical score received.

Evaluations Criteria

Criteria Points Technical Approach. Responsiveness to the RFP, Comprehension of the scope of work and identification of deliverables

Experience and Expertise of Key Personnel. Similar experience and score of work in a comparable community. Inclusion and review of references and client satisfaction to previous projects

Presentation of the Proposal. Clear and concise presentation and adherence to the timeline

Price Proposal 25

TOTAL 100

Interviews and Presentations

Top-scoring consultants, based on the evaluation of the written proposals, may be required to have interviews/ presentations to support and clarify their proposals, if requested by the City. Failure of a consultant to complete a scheduled interview/presentation to the evaluation committee may result in rejection of the opportunity for award of an agreement.

Final Evaluation

Upon completion of any interviews/presentations by the proposing consultants, the City’s evaluation committee will make adjustments to the scores based on the information obtained in the interview/presentation, possible reference checks, project fee, any other pertinent proposer information, and other pertinent factor(s) that may arise and/or be included by the City.

Right to reject proposals and negotiate agreement terms

The City reserves the right to reject any and all proposals without cause or notice, if determined that one or another does not satisfactorily meet the needs, qualifications, product, and/or outcomes required or desired. The City reserves the right to negotiate the terms of an agreement, including the award amount, with the selected consultant or any other person, even with someone who has not submitted a proposal, prior to entering into an agreement. Selection, award, terms, conditions, and amount are each within the sole discretion of the City.

Late Proposals

The City may deem the proposal as late if received at any time after 3:00 PM on March 7, 2025.

Proposals received after this time on this date will be marked as “LATE PROPOSALS”, might not be considered, and might be returned to the consultant, all within the sole discretion of the City.

Amendments to RFP

The City reserves the right to amend the RFP by addendum or to waive minor irregularities. If necessary, the proposal submittal deadline will be extended to allow proposers additional time to respond to the RFP addendum.

Non-commitment

This RFP does not commit the City to award an agreement to any person; to pay any person’s costs, fees, or expenses incurred in the preparation of a proposal for this request; or to procure or contract for services. The City reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals received as a result of this request, or to modify or cancel in part or in its entirety the RFP, without cause and notice, such as, but not limited to, if City staff determine it is in the best interests of the City to do so. The City may negotiate and enter into an agreement for these services with whomever it desires without notice or cause.

Award of Agreement

If and when this agreement has been executed by City staff and the selected consultant, a project kick-of meeting will be scheduled.

Section 7 – Terms and Conditions

Terms and Conditions

If for any reason, the firm selected shall fail to fulfill the obligations agreed to in a timely manner, the City shall have the right to terminate the contract by specifying the date of termination in written notice to the firm at least (7) days before the termination date. In this event, the firm shall be entitled to just and equitable compensation for the work satisfactorily completed.

The successful consultant will be required to furnish, within five (5) days of the award notification and before commencing work, a certificate of insurance. The certificate shall name the City, its officers and employees, as additional insured.

The agreement resulting from this RFP shall be required to contain the following:

“Provider agrees to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the City and its officers, officials, employees and agents from and against any and all liability, loss, damage expense, costs, (including attorney fees) arising out of this agreement, caused in whole or in part by the Provider or anyone for whose acts any of them may be liable, except where caused by the sole negligence or willful misconduct of the City."

The contract resulting from the award of this RFP shall commence upon execution.