“That’s why every single council meeting, I’ve said I need a budget and I’ve been told we’re working on it,” Rosenau said.
By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The Parsons City Council discussed the potential for future wage increases for City employees at the November 19th City Council meeting. The discussion came following a motion by Mayor Bruce Kolsun proposing a two dollar an hour raise for all employees, effective immediately. There was no second on the motion. “I would like to propose a two dollar salary increase to be effective immediately,” Kolsun said.
According to Kolsun, the City has funding for the raises. “We checked it out, the money is there to do this,” Kolsun said. “I would like to make that proposal.”
Council Member Kathy DiBacco made a motion to table the matter until January pending further investigation into the City finances. The motion was seconded by Council Member Tim Turner. “I want to make a motion that we table this until January when we see an up to date financial statement,” DiBacco said.
Council Member Melissa Jones said she wanted to see what the new water and sewer rates brought in before committing to a pay increase. “I would like to see what we bring in in January, possibly February and March because our bills are 45 days past, to see what our significant amount of money is coming in and to see how our sewer rate is doing and how our sewer fund is doing,” Jones said. “To see if we can increase the wages more than two dollars an hour.
Jones said that each department should have the pay come out of it or else it could bankrupt the general fund. “You have to understand, you don’t just have you’re water and you’re sewer. They’ll be getting their pay out of that rate,” Jones said. “You also have the Parks, the Maintenance crew and everything and their pay consists of work that they have done in that department. So that department might drain the general fund if you’re giving all these pay raises to everyone and using just the general fund money.”
City Attorney Tim Stranko said that every dollar that comes out of the Water and Sewer fund has to be justified. “We have to justify every dollar we take out of the water and the sewer fund for the money we spend on the water and the sewer,” Stranko said. “We can’t cross the lines there.”
Kolsun said his plan was to start with the two dollar raise and then add to it later on. “My proposal was to do this, then we’d increase another dollar or two,” Kolsun said.
Council Member Seth Rosenau said he was all for raises for City employees, but could not vote for it at this time due to the uncertainty of the City financial records. “The reason I can’t vote for it is, I one thousand percent promoted for a raise for our employees,” Rosenau said. “I do want to get them a raise. The only reason I haven’t made this proposal, is because I’m waiting for an active budget on how much money we actually have to give them a raise. So that’s why every single council meeting, I’ve said I need a budget and I’ve been told we’re working on it.”
Rosenau said he could not vote in good conscience for a raise without knowing how much money was in the City coffers. “So I can’t in good conscience say how much we’re going to give them a raise because I don’t know how much money we have,” Rosenau said. “But I do want them all to have a raise a thousand percent.”
Rosenau addressed the Mayor on the issue of the budget. “If you know the budget, Mayor, you have not shared that and I have asked and asked and asked and asked how much do we have so we can get our men a raise and our women a raise and I still haven’t got an answer,” Rosenau said.
City Treasurer Mistee Griffith said she has also been seeking more information on the City budget. “And I would like to see it because I have yet to see it,” Griffith said. “We’ve looked for budgets.”
City Administrator Michael Simmons said that come the new fiscal year, he plans to start from scratch on the City budget. “When we start the new fiscal year with the new budget, I’m probably going to recreate everything from scratch,” Simmons said.
In a unanimous roll call vote, the Council voted to postpone the matter until the January 21st meeting. However, the council did make it a point to have Simmons inform all employees that the Council did not vote against a pay raise entirely and explain why the matter was postponed.