Despite a tight budget and continuing tax revenue declines, the Peachtree City Council is going to consider the possibility of enacting a mid-year across the board pay raise for city employees and a pay raise for elected council members.
Both matters are listed on the agenda for Thursday night’s council meeting.
The current budget does not include any pay raises for employees as several members of last year’s council cited the shrinking sales tax revenue brought on by the recession.
A 1 percent pay raise for all city employees would cost $106,362 and a 2 percent hike would cost $212,723, City Manager Bernie McMullen said in a memo to council members. McMullen does not propose in his memo how those funds will be carved from the current budget.
McMullen noted that “several” council members have indicated they want to consider the salary adjustment for city employees.
Mayor Don Haddix said last year that he supported at least a cost of living adjustment raise for employees, but his wish was voted down in the approved 2009-2010 budget.
The council pay raises were approved in 2007 with a start date of Jan. 1, but the raises were cut from the current year’s budget when it was adopted last year. City staff has suggested the $24,750 would come from the council contingency line item in the budget, leaving it with a balance of $25,250.
The current annual salaries of $9,000 for mayor and $6,000 for council members have not changed since 1985. The proposal would double those figures to give the mayor $18,000 a year and council members $12,000 a year.
Former councilwoman Cyndi Plunkett, who proposed the raises before they were approved in August 2007, said at the time she felt the higher salaries would encourage more people to run for office. The reason the start date was set for January 2010 was so none of the people on council who voted for the raises would receive them unless they won reelection.
The motion to double the council salary in August 2007 was supported by council members Plunkett, Steve Boone and Stuart Kourajian. Voting against was new Councilman Mike Harman while Mayor Harold Logsdon abstained. None of those people is currently serving on council.
