The Columbus City Council voted down an attempt to give its members a $3,000 raise for the next term, and the councilman who brought the matter forward refuses to explain why he did so.
Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens moved to raise the council’s annual pay from $17,500 to $20,500. The item was not included on the agenda emailed to the media ahead of the meeting or on the agenda publicly available on the city’s website.
Mickens’ motion drew a second from Ward 1 Councilman Gene Taylor. The vote failed 3-2, with Mickens and Taylor supporting and Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box, Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones and Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin. Ward 4 Councilman Marty Turner was absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
Every councilman present at Tuesday’s meeting would have received the raise, if approved. Each councilman won re-election, except Turner, who was unseated by councilman-elect Fredrick Jackson.
Mickens offered no reasoning for the raise at the table. He also refused to comment when approached by The Dispatch after the meeting, saying “I don’t have nothing for y’all.”
Councilmen who opposed the measure, along with Mayor Robert Smith, voiced concerns at the table about both the timing and need for council raises.
Gavin suggested money for the proposed council raises could be better spent on a new police department crime lab employee or police vehicle.
“Just two weeks ago, we were all out there asking people to put their faith and trust in us and vote for us,” Gavin said. “I didn’t get into this job for the money, I can assure you. I’m against a pay raise for ourselves.
“I realize that if you look at this job, it’s worth more than what it pays,” Gavin added. “But I got into this to help the citizens of Columbus, make the city better and help the people of Ward 6.”
Box agreed.
“I don’t think it’s necessary right now for us to receive a raise,” Box said. “We’re well-paid compared to other cities our size in the state of Mississippi. I just think we have so much more to do with this money than raise our salary. We all ran knowing exactly what the salary was, so that’s my feeling on that.”
Smith cautioned against the raise, saying he feels the city should instead consider giving employee raises.
“We’re just getting into our budget and right now we don’t know where we are,” Smith said. “I would hope we could give our employees a pay raise. We haven’t given our employees a raise since (2015).”
Taylor, speaking to The Dispatch after the meeting, said he supported the raise because he felt, as Gavin indicated, that councilmen don’t get paid enough for the work they do.
“The timing may have been a little off to do it, but that was my reason,” Taylor said. “It is a lot of work, and I understand that. I understand that I am a public servant and I will try to do the best job I can for the city of Columbus, not just Ward 1.
“I will continue to do that whether there is ever a raise for that work or not,” Taylor added.
Mickens’ motion for council raises came as the city continues to fall behind last year’s record-setting pace for sales tax collections. Chief Financial Officer Milton Rawle told councilmen this month’s collections were $45,690 behind June 2016. Sales tax collections are lagging $395,301 year-to-date behind last fiscal year’s collections.
Mickens also attempted to raise the city council’s salary four years ago. At the time, Mickens moved to raise the council’s salary by $4,000 to $21,500, which would have taken effect for the current council term.
The vote passed on a 3-2 vote, with support from Taylor and then-Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem, and opposition from Box and Gavin. Then-Ward 4 Councilman Fred Stewart did not attend the meeting.
The council rescinded the raise on a 5-1 vote in the first meeting of the 2013-17 term. Mickens was the only dissenting vote.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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