Did City Council Know They Were Voting On Staff Raises?

By Gordon HopkinsThe city raised the salaries of non-union city employees in 2023 even though the raises were never recommended by the personnel committee. The city’s personnel committee is ordinarily tasked with proposing raises for city staff and forwarding those recommendations to the city council for final approval. But the committee never recommended the raises awarded on January 1 and October 1 of 2023. Rather than act on any recommendation from any committee, council member Doug Brown said the issue of raises was brought as “a directive by the Mayor to the Committee.”But Mayor Spencer Brown believes the raises were properly authorized, “Although some non-union increases have been voted on by the personnel committee in the past, it is not required to do so. It’s part of the budget and approved with claims each month. The salaries are published annually as required by state law.” While raises were approved by the city council, because of the way they are presented in the claims, it is unclear that members of the city council were aware of what they were voting on. FJN asked every member of the council. As of press time, only two responded. Both said no.Kelly Davis, council president and also Mayor Brown’s opponent in the upcoming mayoral election, said, “(W)e have never been told about raises, and when we vote to approve the bills, on the spreadsheets we see, it just says payroll, and lump sums, nothing broken down by employee. It can vary some, but I figured that was because of part time and seasonal help.”Council member Bradley Kuzelka said, “It would be nice if we had a city administrator that could report this kind of stuff to council.” Mayor Brown indicated the personnel committee would be involved in the future, “Going forward, the standard practice will be a personnel vote recorded into the minutes for non union employees.”

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