Four out of five East Ridge council members recently approved across-the-board pay raises for city employees, even though the city has a $700,000 budget deficit from the previous year.
Councilman Denny Manning said he voted against the proposed 1.25 percent pay hikes only because he wanted to give the city’s workers a 2 percent raise.
“The low man on the totem pole’s got bills to pay like everybody else,” Manning said. “They’re just as important as everything else we find money for all the time.”
In addition to the 1.25 percent raise, the city’s police officers will receive a boost of $1,000.
“We did a study a few years ago of other police forces around here and East Ridge had the lowest salary,” Interim City Manager Eddie Phillips said. “The problem is that other cities keep giving raises, too.”
Councilmen Brent Lambert and Larry Sewell opposed the raise for police, which was the third in a row for the department.
If councilmen approve the proposed $10 million budget, the salary upgrades take effect in January, adding $73,000 to city expenditures.
The moves are turnabouts for Manning, Lambert and Sewell, all of whom criticized former City Manager William Whitson and promised fiscal conservatism after the budget shortfall became public.
The raises came at a time in which residents still are trying to determine whether the city’s politicians or management team failed to spot the shortfall before it increased to $700,000, the largest deficit for East Ridge in at least two decades.
The city’s May financial statement and spending report – distributed to the mayor and City Council – show that general fund revenues were projected to be down $325,000.
But council members never spoke of a deficit until two of them forced Whitson to call a public meeting about the matter in early August.
Despite that document and assurances from Whitson that he kept the council informed, Manning and other councilmen have said management “left us in the dark.”
Sewell and Vice Mayor Tom Card face opposition during the upcoming November council elections, and Lambert is one of three candidates running for mayor.
Manning holds on to his council seat until 2012, and Mayor Mike Steele dropped plans to run last spring.
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Contact Chris Carroll at ccarroll@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6610.