Commission Approves Across The Board Pay Raises For Rome Employees

Rome city commissioners voted to increase pay across the board for city employees after a pay study showed that local police, firefighters and many workers in the public works departments, like sanitation, are paid approximately 20% less than in surrounding communities.

The commission unanimously approved the pay scale increases Monday and, immediately after the vote, the entire room stood and gave the members of the Rome Police Department and Rome-Floyd Fire Department in attendance a standing ovation.

The cost to bring up not just public safety employees, but all city employees will initially cost approximately $2.5 million, City Manager Sammy Rich said. There’s still some question about what the raise will look like for individual employees.

“It would be life changing for some of our solid waste guys,” Human Resources Director Kristy Shepard said before the vote. She also spoke on the effect the pay scale increase would have on public safety and heavy equipment operators as well.

Peter Blackhaus, a senior consultant with Evergreen Solutions, gave an overview of the city employee pay study during the board’s premeeting caucus on Monday.

The purpose of that study was to analyze if city employees are being paid in a manner competitive to nearby communities as well as for the jobs they are doing.

“Jobs grow and evolve over time,” Blackhaus said, adding later that, “There’s certainly a good bit of lagging at the starting pay benefits.”

Pointing to baseline pay for some jobs like police, firefighters and public works, Rich said the raise is something the commission needs to consider.

The study recommended that base firefighter and public safety pay begin at $52,000, an average 20% over the current pay scale. In other departments, the base pay of $13 an hour would be increased to $16 an hour.

“The $52,000 is a very, very competitive salary that would advance us... We’ve got some vacancies in police and challenges to not create vacancies in fire when people begin hiring,” Rich said.

There’s been a number of discussions recently about working folks struggling to get by, Rich said, noting that some of the city employees have fallen into that category.

“If we can move forward with this... literally every position gets touched,” Rich said.

Of the initial costs, $1.6 million of that $2.5 million would come from general fund dollars and some from enterprise funds. The city manager said partial funding for some other jobs, like firefighters, would come from the county government.

Rich said they’d like to enact the payscale increases by Sept. 1.

Rome Floyd County Fire Chief Troy Brock said moving forward on this pay scale increase may assist the department in keeping employees. With Bartow County Fire Department opening a new station, they’ve redoubled their recruitment efforts within the ranks of Floyd County firefighters, he said.

Mayor Craig McDaniel spoke in support of moving forward with the pay scale increases.

“If you call 911, a city commissioner doesn’t come out, police come out,” McDaniel said.

Other commissioners also appeared to view the pay scale increases as a positive way of keeping employees.

“We at least need to be competitive. At least. And it’s a shame if we’re not,” Commissioner Jamie Doss said. “We can implement this study without raising taxes?”

“That’s correct,” Rich said.