Council postpones salary ordinance vote

Major budget decisions by the Grand Island City Council were postponed until tonight as council members continued to probe for answers and solutions to difficult financial problems facing the city.

Continued budget discussions will begin at 7 tonight at the council chambers at Grand Island City Hall, 100 E. First Street.

The reason why budget discussion will continue tonight revolves around the postponement of a vote on a salary ordinance by the council.

Before digging into the budget, the council approved a labor contract with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers employees in the Finance and Utilities departments. Those workers will receive an average salary increase of 3.5 percent.

They also approved an ordinance selling Lot 8 at the Platte Valley Industrial Park to the Grand Island Area Economic Development Corp. for $125,820.

But when discussing the salary ordinance that would have increased non-union workers' salaries by 3.75 percent and department directors by 4.75 percent, the council was not in agreement about those increases.

Under previously approved union contracts, the Fraternal Order of Police employees will see a 3.5-percent increase, International Association of Firefighters a 3.25-percent increase and the Association of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees workers a 4-percent increase.

Council member Robert Meyer introduced an amendment to the salary ordinance to decrease department head salaries from 4.75 percent to 3.75 percent. Meyer said the proposed adjustment would be more in line with the increases that union workers received and the 3.75-percent increase requested for non-union city workers.

The amendment was approved with council member Jose Zapata voting no.

Council member John Gericke then made a motion to amend the salary ordinance to bring the salary increase for the city's finance secretary to 3.75 percent, which was the same as what was proposed for non-union city workers.

Then council member Peg Gilbert proposed an amendment to the salary ordinance to decrease the proposed salary increase of 3.75 percent for non-union city workers to 3 percent.

Citing the fact that salaries are a major portion of the city's budget, Gilbert said that decreasing the non-union workers' salary increase to 3 percent would still be in line with the increases union members received, while saving the city money.

But council President Mitchell Nickerson said the 3.75-percent was a fair salary adjustment for the non-union city workers, especially in light of increasing personal expenses workers are facing with higher gas and food costs.

Council member Meyer also felt the increase for non-union workers was fair and the increase could be made up with other cuts in the budget.

He said it would be unfair for city workers to shoulder all the city's budget woes.

But council member Joyce Haase said it's a question of what the taxpayers can afford.

Haase said a lot of businesses in the private sector aren't providing the kind of salary increases to their employees being proposed by the city for their workers because of the downturn in the economy.

"A lot of people make a lot less money than what we pay our employees," Haase said. "How much do we want to push our taxpayers?"

But council member Gericke agreed with Meyer and Nickerson that the 3.75-percent salary increase for non-union workers was fair.

Gericke said city workers can't earn bonuses or special pay increases like workers in the private sector. He said the raises are needed to help the city retain its workers.

Gilbert wanted to know what the savings would be to the city if the pay increase to non-union workers was decreased to 3 percent.

Because the answer wasn't immediately available to Gilbert and the council, she asked the council to vote on postponing its vote on the salary ordinance until Wednesday, when those figures could be presented to the council.

The council voted 6-4 to postpone its vote on the salary ordinance until tonight.

Nickerson, who presided over Tuesday's meeting for Mayor Margaret Hornady, then proceeded to begin council discussions on the proposed city budget.

The budget discussion began with City Administrator Jeff Pederson laying out to the council the key fiscal issues facing the city and proposed solutions.

Among those key fiscal issues, Pederson said sales taxes were not increasing at forecast rates, the percentage of property taxes that fund the city's general fund was declining, and the general fund's cash reserve has been spent down.

While stating that city was in sound financial condition, Pederson said his concerns were not with the budget before the council, but future budgets where the revenue crunch would be more severe.

In a previous story in The Grand Island Independent,  Pederson was quoted saying that the city has had adequate revenues to keep up with spending. But this coming year, sales tax revenues are expected to be up just $245,000, while personnel costs are budgeted to grow $1.2 million, leaving about $950,000 to be made up with another revenue source.

What Pederson proposed to the council was increasing property taxes to bring in $400,000 and issuing a $2 million bond.

No council action was taken Tuesday night on either of Pederson's proposals.