Salary hike a top priority for Mayor

Mayor Joe B. McNeal sent a budget priority request letter to council members prior to the 2008 budget prioritization meeting held on June 18, urging the council to approve major salary increases for city employees.

McNeal listed six priorities in his letter for the city council to take into consideration when prioritizing budget items for the 2008 fiscal year.

The first priority was the salary adjustments. "My highest priority for this year's budget is our people," stated McNeal in his letter.

The salary adjustments came from the salary study prepared by Jon Sowers of Horizon Human Resource Consulting. The study showed that the law enforcement and public works departments, particularly, had lost competitiveness compared to other cities.

"If you can fund no other request, please address the salary schedule and grade adjustment changes," McNeal stated in his letter.

In order to implement the salary study recommendations, the city council has been wrestling with trying to bring the rest of the city operations within budget. The vast bulk of requests by city departments for capital improvements, replacement of aging vehicles, and special projects, have been cut in preliminary budget meetings held by the council.

McNeal's second priority involved personnel requests. He asked that two maintenance workers be added to the Street Department and two patrol officers be added to the Police Department.

Priority three was the paving of the cemetery's roads. "It is where we honor our military and remember the past generations who built this community," the letter read. If full paving was not possible, a request for the funding of repair and maintenance was requested for by the mayor.

Public Transportation was the mayor's fourth priority. McNeal requested that the full $27,000 budget request from Treasure Valley Transit be funded even though there was controversy surrounding the need because ridership has been low.

"For a $27,000 investment, we leverage hundreds of thousands of federal dollars into the community, and provide a service to our elderly and disabled neighbors that greatly enhances their self sufficiency," the mayor stated in his letter.

McNeal's fifth priority was council salaries. "I request that council salaries be increased from $725 to $825 monthly.... I know this is a politically difficult issue. But you must think of the people who will serve after you." The council however, already has dropped that request as part of its initial cuts on budget requests.

McNeal's reasons for raising the council salaries included: the salaries not being increased for ten years, population and budget increasing along with length and frequency of meetings, and more complicated issues requiring more study and research and the potentially higher liability of the council's decisions.

The sixth and final priority of McNeal involved equipment requests. "If there is funding left after the previous priorities have been met, please fund equipment purchases as requested and prioritized by the department heads," McNeal's letter stated.

Out of the mayor's six budget priorities presented to council members, only half of them were funded as of June 18.

The council did fund the salary study recommendations with partial implementation in October 2007 and full implementation in January 2008.

The council also funded one patrol officer for the Police Department and one maintenance worker for the Street Department rather than the two personnel for each department as requested per the mayor's letter.

As for the equipment requests some of them have been funded by the council, and some are budget requests still to be approved/revised by the council.

However, the council did decide in previous budget request evaluation meetings not fund the mayor's priorities of paving the cemetery roads, public transportation or council salaries.