Memorandum
City of Lawrence
Department of Administrative Services
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TO: |
Mike Wildgen, City Manager
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FROM: |
Frank S. Reeb, Administrative Services Director/City Clerk
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CC: |
Dave Corliss, Assistant City Manager/Director of Legal Services
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Date: |
August 11, 2005
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RE: |
PIRC request for Commission Direction and Microtech information
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On April 21, 2005, the Public Incentive Review Committee agreed to forward the 2004 Tax Abatement Report to the City Commission (the Commission received that report on the May 3, 2005 Consent Agenda). During the same April 21st meeting, the PIRC requested direction from the City Commission on the issues of: 1) the apparent non-compliance among some of the tax abated companies as indicated in the annual report; and 2) investigating ways to improve the use of public incentives.
The following excerpt from page 6 of the April 21, 2005 PIRC Meeting minutes describes the PIRC request for direction:
“Commissioner Rundle said he was concerned about the high level of non-compliance and would like to send the report to the City Commission for direction on what the commission would like the PIRC committee to follow-up on.
Jere McElhaney thought that the committee was still debating as to the level of non-compliance among the tax abated companies.
Mayor Highberger offered to clarify the direction sought from the City Commission. He suggested the committee forward the report to the City Commission, noting that the report indicates a level of non-compliance among the tax abated companies and that PIRC requests direction from the City Commission on this issue, and on the issue of investigating ways to improve the use of public incentives.
Jere McElhaney made a motion to forward this recommendation and request for further direction to the City Commission as stated by Mayor Highberger.
Seconded by Commissioner Rundle. All voted in favor of the motion.”
Also, as of the April 21st meeting, Microtech had not submitted the required completed annual report questionnaire. We have since received that information from Microtech and the employment and wage information is included below:
Microtech reported 39 full time employees employed on December 31, 2004, which is 16 employees below the number projected on the tax abatement application (employment numbers for 2001 through 2003 are included in Table 2 (on page 3) of the 2004 Annual Report).
As for wage information, Microtech reported the following:
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Microtech |
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SOC and number of jobs |
Occupation |
FT or PT |
Above/Below Survey Mean |
Firm Avg. |
KS Wage Survey Mean Wage |
Firm Min. |
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15-1099 (4) |
Computer Specialists |
FT |
BELOW |
$18.33 |
$26.51 |
$15.63 |
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41-0000 (10) |
Sales |
FT |
ABOVE |
$11.84 |
$11.25 |
$8.00 |
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43-3031 (3) |
Accounting Clerk |
FT |
ABOVE |
$13.83 |
$12.30 |
$13.50 |
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43-4051 (6) |
Customer Service |
FT |
ABOVE |
$13.78 |
$13.73 |
$11.50 |
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43-5071 (3) |
Shipping/Receiving |
FT |
BELOW |
$10.50 |
$10.95 |
$9.50 |
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43-5081 (3) |
Warehouse Clerk |
FT |
ABOVE |
$12.94 |
$9.88 |
$9.50 |
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43-9060 (4) |
Office Clerk |
FT |
BELOW |
$7.25 |
$11.58** |
$5.50 |
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49-2011 (3) |
Computer Repair |
FT |
BELOW |
$14.82 |
$14.95 |
$13.65 |
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51-2099 (14) |
Assemblers |
FT |
ABOVE |
$8.89 |
$8.40 |
$8.00 |
Microtech reported 15 total job categories
· 8 of 15 full time (53%) paid at or above the mean wage for the job category
If you have any questions about the PIRC request for information or the Microtech information, please let me know.