Starkville aldermen voted down an attempt to give employees an across-the-board 2 percent raise on Tuesday, but the debate has opened the possibility of revisiting the matter when the city begins planning for the next budget year.
Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins introduced the matter, saying the city hasn’t given an across-the-board raise since 2015. Perkins moved to implement the raise, which would take effect on April 6, 2020. He said implementing the raise in the third quarter of next fiscal year would minimize the impact on that year’s budget and would cost the city about $160,000 — $106,500 of which would come from the city’s general fund and about $53,000 of which would come from enterprise funds.
Perkins added he was fine with cutting other budget areas to support the raises if needed.
“If we have to freeze some things like new hires, I’ve done that before,” Perkins said. “I have the backbone and the strength to do it. If we need to cut something and somebody’s not comfortable with it, I’ll make the motion. I’ll do it. If we need to cut travel or whatever we need to do, we need to do it to take care of these employees.”
Perkins’ effort ultimately failed 4-3, with Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn supporting him. Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk, Ward 3 Alderman David Little, Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker and Ward 5 Alderman Patrick Little voted against the raises.
However, the aldermen who voted against the effort Tuesday night said they weren’t opposed to the raises, but the timing.
Sistrunk said she agrees it’s worth looking into giving employees raises. However, she said she felt it should be a part of the city’s budget planning process, which will start within the next two or so months.
She added the city has about $400,000 in new commitments coming on board for the next fiscal year, which includes a payment for a fire truck the city had to purchase to replace a failing one for Starkville Fire Department and increased Public Employee Retirement System of Mississippi (PERS) costs. Adding the raises would increase that total to about $500,000 in new costs, and she said it’s unreasonable to assume the city’s revenue will jump that much without tax increases or finding other areas to cut spending.
Sistrunk also pointed to Columbus, which is scrambling to avoid running out of money before the end of the fiscal year, as an example to be careful with the city’s finances.
“We are seeing play out in real time, not very far from here, the consequences of not making sound financial decisions, and not monitoring finances,” Sistrunk said. “We don’t want Starkville to be in that position. We don’t want to be looking around saying we’re going to have to freeze hiring. We don’t want to be looking around saying we’re going to have people work 32 hours a week and take a pay cut because we have not managed our money well.
“I agree whole-heartedly that we need to look at our pay structure,” she continued. “But I think we need to have more discussion than we’re going to have at the table tonight. I think we need to figure out what our goals are with any sort of pay increase and we need to have it as part of our budget process. That’s two months from now that we’ll be having those conversations.”
Miller said he felt Perkins had issued a challenge to the board, but he couldn’t support it on Tuesday because the board got very limited information on the raises’ financial effects before the meeting.
Vaughn said aldermen often rightly praise the city’s workers. However, he took issue with the board balking at approving Tuesday’s effort for a raise.
“You know as well as I know, if we don’t make the decision tonight, you won’t make it,” Vaughn said. “Normally, every four or five years, they get a pay increase. And y’all know as well as I know, if we do not make this decision tonight, we will find something else to do with the money. You know that.”
Type of raise
Should discussions continue, the city will likely look at whether to make the raise an across the board one or to target it at those employees who earn the least.
During citizen comments, Chris Taylor, the former president of the Oktibbeha County NAACP, said he didn’t think it was fair to give an across-the-board raise that would give less money to the lowest-paid employees.
Mayor Lynn Spruill said she agreed, and called an across-the-board two percent raise “inequitable.” She said the city should consider conducting another salary survey, as it did a few years ago for wage adjustments, and look at raising its minimum wage above $10 per hour.
“Our two percent pay increase, given to the lowest paid employees, for a year would be $208,” she said. “You divide that by 24, which would be the number of pay periods, and you get just enough probably to get a Big Mac, some fries and maybe a drink. It would be $8.67 a pay period. I don’t think that’s equitable with someone who, at the highest salary in the city, would be making $1,065.17, which divided by 24 would be getting $44.38 per pay period.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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