Commission refuses back pay if salaries reinstated

HIGH SPRINGS – The High Springs City Commission is expected to restore monthly salaries for commissioners and the mayor at the Thursday, March 28, 2013 commission meeting. Resolution 2013-D, which would have made restoration of their salaries retroactive to the beginning of the 2012-2013 fiscal year, Oct. 1, 2012, failed to pass during the March 14 commission meeting.

While commissioners were in favor of restoring the salaries, some expressed displeasure at making the retroactive date the beginning of the fiscal year. Mayor Sue Weller and Commissioners Bob Barnas and Linda Gestrin defeated the resolution with a 3-2 vote and instead directed City Attorney Scott Walker to present another resolution at the March 28 meeting in which the retroactive date is set at March 1, 2013.

City Attorney Walker modified the wording as directed and it will now appear on the March 28 agenda as Resolution 2013-E.

Commissioners have been receiving $100 less in salary each month since October. If Resolution 2013-E is approved as anticipated, each commissioner will return to their previous salary amounts.

This fiscal year, commissioners have each been receiving $400 monthly and the mayor has been receiving $450 monthly. Adoption of the resolution would return those monthly salaries to $500 for commissioners and $550 for the mayor.

Salaries for hourly employees, which had been reduced at the beginning of the fiscal year by 6.07 percent, were reinstated earlier this year and made retroactive to the beginning of the fiscal year.

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