BY LISA DONOVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Find a way to save taxpayer money, get a check.
That's the idea behind a plan to reward city of Cincinnati employees who devise and successfully implement cost-cutting measures on the job.
"This is designed to save taxpayers money and reward an employee for being creative," Councilman Phil Heimlich said Tuesday. He'll introduce the plan today during council's regular meeting. Under the incentive plan, city employees would be eligible for up to 50 percent of any savings the city realizes under the previous year's budget. At the same time, there must be proof that the quality of service has been improved.
"The program's sole source of funding will be budgetary savings," Mr. Heimlich said.
A team would be established for each of the city's divisions and would include the city manager, department and division director, a union representative and a management employee.
Before doling out the money, the city manager has the final say on whether the goals have been met.
As much as half of the money might be paid out to employees in the affected division. With a few exceptions, the other half would go back into the city's general fund.
Public employee incentive plans are not new in the United States. In Charlotte, N.C., an incentive plan was put in place in 1994. In the last three years, the city has saved $21.5 million. Of that total, $3.8 million went back to city employees and the remaining $17.7 million went back into city coffers, said Ken Wallace, compensation manager for the city of Charlotte.
These "in my wallet" rewards, as Mr. Heimlich refers to them, raise the question of why employees need an extra incentive to do what is expected.
That's part of the reason a previous city incentive plan ended, said William Moller, director of the Office of Budget and Evaluation. Mr. Moller had not seen Mr. Heimlich's plan Tuesday and wanted to study the issue further.
"It could work in the right setting," he said.
City Manager John Shirey said that while such incentive plans are popular in the private sector, city government faces criticism from the public when such a reward system is set up.
"We're always at a disadvantage when we start trying to give the same pay incentives as the private sector," he said.
The measure is likely to be referred to Mr. Shirey for his analysis and recommendation.
