Newberry City Commission Puts Brakes on Staff Salary Increases

NEWBERRY ‒ Salary talks dominated the Newberry City Commission meeting on Sept. 6 as a lengthy and sometimes heated discussion ensued between the Commission and City Manager Mike New regarding employee compensation. Although all the Commissioners expressed concern about the economics facing the City of Newberry in the coming year, Commissioner Monty Farnsworth expressed the most trepidation about proposed employee compensation amounts.

Recently, six City employees successfully graduated from a two-year nationally-recognized Certified Public Manager (CPM) program at Florida State University's Center for Public Management. A seven percent raise was given to those six employees, and a two-percent cost of living raise was proposed across the board for all employees in the upcoming year’s budget plus an additional small merit increase was proposed based on performance evaluations by supervisors.

Farnsworth expressed concern about adding the cost of living and merit increased on those six employees who earned the seven percent increase due to their achievements in the CPM program. Commissioner Tim Marden also expressed reservations about the upcoming year’s financial situation and what the City can afford.

Commissioner Rick Coleman said that although he’d like to see all the employees get a 15 percent increase, he knew that was not possible. He agreed with the seven percent increase, but not for more than that for those six employees.

Coleman also said he would like to see the City Manager get an increase this year. In past years he has given up his salary increases so the employees could get increases. Lee said that whatever the COLA amount is set by the Commission and the percent of increases, New would get those increases as well.

A question about how the seven percent was determined led to Lee explaining that the City has a policy of salary increases for additional training and education.

A comment was made that the budget included the proposed salary increases while also proposing a millage decrease over the previous year’s millage rate.

In answer to a question by Commissioner Tony Mazon, Lee explained that financial reserves for the City nine years ago was $64 and the current reserve amount is $3.8 million. Mazon said the reserve amount indicates that the City Manager and staff have done a good job and he thought that if the increases were within the salary range for those positions, he didn’t understand why the Commission should question the city manager’s decision.

New said that the employees who participated in the CPM program began the program two years ago with the expectation that they would receive a pay bump for successfully completing the program and that several other employees also have benefitted from the Educational Incentive Program at the City.

New said if the Commission wishes to change the program, that can be done, but not for employees who have dedicated two years to completing a lengthy and time-consuming course while also maintaining their workload at the City. New considered this an eleventh-hour change and indicates to those staff members, “We were only kidding,” when this program was instituted.

New added that if the Commission decides not to provide cost of living or merit increases to those who participated in the CPM program, what the City is saying is “Well, you guys got an increase for going to class so the increases we were planning for all of your teammates, you are not eligible to receive.” He also mentioned that the salary study the City recently received indicated that at least four of the senior staff members were underpaid.

“If [the Commission] were to tell us at the beginning of the budget season that you think senior staff should make a lower percentage increase than our lower paid staff, we’re going to put that in the budget and it’s going to get approved by the Commission, gleefully with staff support,” said New. “But when we go to the eleventh hour after the people took the class, received their pay increase and get to the end [of the budget process] with a balanced budget that has a millage rate reduction and includes every project the Commission asked for, I believe it’s inappropriate to change the incentive program for those employees at this point.”

As Commissioner Mark Clark was not in attendance at this meeting, the discussion was postponed to second reading of the budget at the next meeting scheduled for Sept. 25 to allow all Commissioners to weigh in on the discussion.

Two other items relating to the budget were briefly discussed. The Commission indicated they wanted to remove the $75,000 wage study from the budget and the cemetery fence, which also would cost $75,000. The $75,000 was to adjust employee salaries that were determined to be under market from the results of the recently completed wage study.

Asked about how much this might lower the millage rate, if approved, Assistant City Manager and Finance Director Dallas Lee calculated 0.214 mills. He also pointed out that if those expenditures were removed on second reading, the money could go toward a stormwater assessment or $35,000 for downtown.

A final determination of these items will be address at the Sept. 25 meeting.

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