Commission approves raise for city employees

After several discussions, the Maysville City Commissioners approved a five percent pay raise for city employees with the option of revisiting the discussion later.

During a special meeting of the city commission on Monday, city employees crowded into the room to hear the discussion by the commissioners.

City Commissioner David Cartmell started the discussion by proposing the across the board $3,000 raise for all employees.

“So everybody gets a boost,” Cartmell said. “What I’ve heard from the people since this started is that we have to pay more to get the lower employees up.”

One city employee said the city cannot currently hire an assistant utility manager.

Cartmell said he believed his proposal could help to get someone in that position.

“I think you can get someone in that position,” he said.

City Manager Matt Wallingford said the raise would be unfair to the department heads.

“They bear a lot of responsibility for this city,” he said. “When things go awry, it’s on their shoulders. I think they deserve, equally, what everybody else gets. They work hard. They are responsible for their department and they are just as much deserving as everyone else to have a higher percentage of a raise. They have earned it.”

Cartmell said they would get $3,000 which he believes is comparable to what was received last year.

He also said it was a discussion that could be revisited after the $3,000 was approved.

Wallingford brought up City Commissioner Victor McKay’s suggestion from a previous budget session.

McKay had suggested the five percent now with revisiting the possibility of more at the end of the year.

“After hours and hours and days of sitting here, I proposed five or six, but I would prefer five,” he said. “I suggested we look at the end of the year, at the consumer price index and when everything settles and we can afford it, we talk about it then.”

City Commissioner Andrew Wood said he was concerned about revenue and expenditures not matching.

“Our budget is set up so revenue matches what we spend and now it’s not matching,” he said. “And now we’re looking at this increase. I know the commissioners attitude is ‘is something broken?’ I just don’t think we have the full picture.”

Wallingford said the city has projects and needs the equipment and material, which has all increased in costs. However, the city is lacking in compensation.

He also said that the lack of compensation means losing quality employees.

“We’ve been able to get by where we are,” he said. “And the kicker here, when you look at our utility rates…our sewage rates are probably where they should be. Our water rates are not. We have water projects to do and we’re lagging behind. If we go to get loans from KIA, they’re going to tell us we need to raise our water rates. Everything has gone up. The cost of getting and retaining good employees has gone up.”

Wallingford mentioned that the city commission has always done a good job to keep the reserves up.

However, Maysville Mayor Debra Cotterill said she wanted to remind everyone that the reserves Wallingford has mentioned has a lot of funds tied to projects that need to be completed.

McKay made the motion for a five percent raise with an option to look at the CPI in December.

The motion passed with Cartmell voting no.

For income, Wallingford said the city commission will look at the property tax in a month.

“The proposal in the budget was to increase the occupational license fee from $75 to $100,” he said. “We need to know if that’s what you want us to incorporate into the budget, because that will start on July 1.”

Larger corporations would pay a percentage on sales.

“We need to make sure we don’t hurt them too bad,” Wood said. “People paying on a percentage may not appreciate the fact that we’ve been on $75 for a long time. I just want to be careful to not throw the baby out with the bath water and frighten, or hurt monetarily, those companies that are paying on a percentage.”

Wallingford said those who pay the percentage would be the companies making over $100,000 on gross receipts.

The commissioners said they would also approve the alcohol regulatory fee.

“That’s all I need now,” Wallingford said. “We can put numbers together.”

City Commissioner Ann Brammer said she would not support a large increase tot he property tax or an increase to the payroll tax.