Raises for city employees were a hot topic at last week’s special call meeting that resulted in the Indianola Board of Aldermen finally approving next fiscal year’s budget.
Mayor Steve Rosenthal announced during the meeting that only the department heads and public works employees were getting pay raises, and in addition, he was “repurposing” his secretary to serve as purchasing clerk and receptionist.
That revelation prompted Alderman Ruben Woods to ask about the methodology used to decipher who should get a pay increase.
He asserted that a “substantial” number of city employees were getting raises.
“You’ve got more people getting raises than not getting raises,” Woods said, “How do you all justify that?”
Rosenthal questioned what Woods meant by substantial.
“Isn’t that self explanatory?” asked Woods. “More than a 3 to 5 percent raise,” adding that some were getting “up in the thousands,” while others were not even getting “a nickel.”
Rosenthal re-established that other than the department heads, no one else but public works employees were slated to get pay hikes.
His reasoning was that the department heads have been held at a “cap” without a pay raise for the past eight years and his decision on the public works employees was based on what he said the aldermen had expressed to him about that segment of workers being underpaid. He added that next year they could possibly look at another department.
Woods continued his line of questioning.
“How many employees did you say wasn’t getting a raise?” Woods asked.
Rosenthal said he didn’t know the exact number from memory, however departmentally it was only public works.
“All through the year, everybody complains about what public works makes, so I figured if we were going to do one category and that’s really all we can afford, public works was the one that needed it,” Rosenthal said.
“That’s not fair,” Woods stated.
Rosenthal said, “I wish life was fair.”
During the exchange, Rosenthal recounted that he had looked at individual production and work performance to make his determinations on the amount to be given.
“Well I can’t vote for this budget like this,” said Woods.
Rosenthal reminded Woods that in previous years the employees have received 3 percent raises across the board while the heads of the departments were restricted to 1 or 1.5 percent increases.
“So, is that fair?” asked Rosenthal.
Woods said he wasn’t against the raises for the department heads because certain one’s pay was “disproportionate,” however there were others that he asserted, “We can’t afford to give that much. I’m not saying that they don’t deserve anything, (but) some of the other employees are deserving something.”
Rosenthal then talked about how difficult it was to propose a deficit budget and still issue anybody a raise.
Woods asked how he could make that statement with a “straight face” when he was giving a pay increase to selected employees.
Rosenthal emphasized that each employee was in fact getting a $4,800 raise in pay because of the increase in the employees health insurance benefit (the city pays the cost).
“Every employee costs us additionally around $4800,” he said.
Woods said he was not trying to increase the budget, but felt as if it could have been distributed better.
Rosenthal said, “Everybody would get a nickel and a dime. Our total salary change is $132,000, if you spread that out among everyone…” he began, however Woods cut him off, “I didn’t say equally, I said it needs some adjustments.”
Rosenthal countered, “If we give everybody something then nobody’s going to get much of anything.”
The mayor then expounded on his efforts to elevate all employees’ salary over the past few years.
“After while we won’t have anybody making less than $8.50,” Rosenthal said.
Woods said he didn’t have a problem with that but maintained his objection was pertaining to those who didn’t get anything.
Eventually, Rosenthal asked Woods to suggest a solution.
“Give me an example because the bulk of it would have to come from the department heads.”
He inquired if Woods would want him to cut the amount designated for the heads in half and spread it among the other city employees.
“That would be a start,” said Woods.
Rosenthal said that amount would be $15,000 to be spread among 80 employees for the year.
“This is our third budget meeting and this is the first time you’ve brought that up. We’re here to approve the budget,” Rosenthal said.
He emphasized that the aldermen have had his list of recommendations for over a month.
Several questions were raised about individual increases and departmental monetary changes with the answers and ensuing discussions adding up to what amounted to over a 90 minute session.
Rosenthal said, “Income is slightly up, expenses are slightly down, the bad news is that means we are probably gonna be close to budget. Two thirds of this budget is salary so we only have a third to play with to change on expenses.”
He explained that there are very few variables to adjust within that one-third because of set expenses such as utilities.
Alderman Darrell Simpson pointed out that without the increase in insurance costs and the pay increases the city would have a balanced budget.
Alderman Sam Brock asked about the savings to the city if the employees were to help “pay into the insurance.” Rosenthal said that if the workers were to pay the $80 increase it would save the city $100,000.
He then reminded Brock that Simpson had proposed that a few meetings back when they were first informed of the insurance cost increase, however, another alderman suggested that the city not only pay the $80 per month increase in addition to the $320 it’s now paying, but the deductible too.
“You see why that won’t work now,” Rosenthal said.
“I would love to have a flat budget, because that’s what we should have,” Rosenthal said.
He added that Indianola was fortunate to have a reserve of funds, “But going at the rate we’re going three years from now, we won’t have it.”
Rosenthal was able to reduce the proposed deficit by $120,000 by making a few major cuts in the police and fire departments’ budgets, plus cutting out a piece of equipment for parks and recreation in addition to several small line items.
However, upon the insistence of Parks and Recreation Director Carolyn O’Neal, the money received from building rentals, which is supposed to go into her budget, was redirected to purchase the tractor.
That ended up being the only modification, however it did not result in a change in the bottom line.
Rosenthal asked for other recommendations, but none were offered.
