Results in for comp study

At 58, City Finance Director Elray Konkel may not be old.

But at a staff party last week, as he casually surveyed his colleagues, it was hard not to notice a shift in demographics.

“I started to feel a little long in the tooth,” he said Wednesday, at a City Council Workshop about staff compensation.

That’s because of 32 city employees hired since the start of the year, many are decidedly younger than some of those who’ve been around awhile, like Konkel.

It remains to be seen if and how the shortening of teeth among staff members will impact the volume of work the city can bite off; but the extra hands couldn’t hurt, Konkel said.

“We seriously expect to get more done now,” he said.

In all, there are 152 full-time positions at City Hall; after the hiring binge, the amount of vacancies is down to six. Especially revived is the city’s engineering corps, which is fully staffed, following a prolonged personnel shortage that limited the amount of work the city could complete.

Still, there is work to do if the city hopes to entice and keep employees, according to John Hankerson, of Milliman Consultants and Actuaries.

Milliman was hired by the city to compare its compensation packages to those of comparable cities. It is the first such study to ever be done at the city, and the first external examination of city salaries in a decade.

The study found that at the low end of the city’s scale, pay is on par with other cities.

“Beyond that it’s not, and it drops pretty rapidly from there,” Hankerson said.

More precisely, jobs that pay above $50,000 – typically those that require more specialized training – are below the median level.

“That’s a risky place to be in terms of retaining people,” Hankerson said.

On the positive side, the city’s health benefits are among the best in the market, which makes the city more attractive to potential employees.

Councilwoman Debbie Vancil said staff demographics should be considered in crafting compensation packages, because people want different types of benefits at different stages in life.

Milliman said the city should set its total compensation at the 65th percentile of the blended, public-private market, while setting benefits at the market meeting, recommendations with which council members agreed.

“What this doesn’t say is how you get there,” Hankerson said.

City staff now will work on setting a new pay-scale structure before returning to the council for approval. The changes would go into effect on Jan. 1.

– Chad Schuster

New curb on N. Madison

Traffic revisions on North Madison were completed this week with the addition of a barrier curb in the center of Madison between Manitou Beach and Moran Roads.

The curb will reduce illegal use of the oncoming traffic lane and will hopefully slash the accident rate at the congested intersection.

“Over the last six months to a year there have been fewer than half a dozen accidents, but that’s a lot in such a short period of time,” city Engineer Bob Earl said. “It seems clear that people were behaving very impatiently and some people were making very inadvisable moves.”

The problem is that many motorists wishing to turn left on Moran Road, which runs parallel to State Route 305, would enter into the oncoming traffic lane to avoid waiting for the light at Madison and 305.

Accidents are not only caused by oncoming drivers, but from impatient drivers barreling up from behind.

“The accident scenario that we are seeing is one in which a driver making a legal left turn from Madison to Moran is struck from the left side and behind by a vehicle illegally using the opposite-direction lane, or in which the legal driver strikes a cyclist doing the same thing.”

“It’s not in your threat axis when you make that left turn to look behind you. I’ve seen cyclists do it too and that’s dangerous stuff guys,” Earl said. “I don’t think people think, they just think ‘why should I wait?’”

The road revision was to be completed by the city, but lacking the manpower, it was outsourced for $8,000.

The traffic management work on North Madison began in July with new speed limits and two new sets of stop signs between State Route 305 and Day Road.

Revisions were in response to the North Madison Avenue Speed Study. The study is online at www.ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us.

Book-It Rep stages ‘Cedars’

Having made it to the big screen in 1999, island author David Guterson’s “Snow Falling on Cedars” has now gone live in a stage adaptation by Seattle’s Book-It Repertory Theatre.

Book-It’s theatrical modus operandi is to promote literacy and a love of books by staging written material whole hog, that is, leaving in plenty of the expository and narrative text that typically goes unspoken in an adaptation.

From classics like Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” to contemporary works like Stephanie Kallos’ “Broken for You” the company has created a vibrant niche on stage and in the educational realm.

Despite Book-It’s novel approach, Guterson said when the organization approached him about “Snow Falling on Cedars,” his initial reaction was that this particular book would likely be difficult to turn into a play because of how much it “bounces around in time.”

But, in short, it worked.

“I saw two scenes from the play and thoroughly enjoyed them,” Guterson said. “It’s fun to see these characters, who were once nothing more than vapor in my mind, now living and breathing on the stage.”

Director Kevin McKeon, who adapted the book for the production, said Guterson was “wonderfully cooperative and supportive” during the production, largely staying hands-off.

“And he wanted it that way,” McKeon said, “because I think he respected the craft of taking his work and turning into something other than a book. It’s got to be interesting to for a writer to see his work in the hands of other artists.”

Guterson agreed.

“I find it interesting and rewarding to see what others do with the book,” he said. “It’s a good feeling to see ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’ take on a life of its own and find other forms to express itself,”

Book-It’s “Snow Falling on Cedars” runs through Oct. 14 at the Seattle Center House Theatre. For tickets and information, call the box office at (206) 216-0833, or go online to www.book-it.org.

– Lindsay Latimore

BITS hits Winslow Way

Bainbridge Island Technology Solutions is moving from the Safeway Village to Harbor Square on Winslow Way.

While the new space may be 220 square feet less then their current location, it is an investment in the growing need for technical support and repair on the island.

“Business has been good. Just a guess, but I think we’re up twenty to thirty percent,” owner Brandon Byron said. “There are times when it just gets crazy at the shop.”

The move will mean a slight shift in the business plan for the island’s only retail-based computer repair shop.

BITS will add twice the repair capacity at their new location to deal with an overwhelming number of jobs. They will also reduce the retail space dedicated to product sales.

“The mix of products will stay the same, it will look full all the time,” said Byron. “But now we’ll be choosing what people want. Rather than a lot different routers, we’ll carry ones that we would recommend to people. We’ll just have one or two of everything instead four or five of everything.”

They will be closed the weekend of Sept. 28 with an aim of reopening on Oct. 1.