By Betsy Finklea
The Dillon City Council held a spirited meeting to finalize the 2016-2017 budget on June 30th.
The major topic of discussion was salaries for employees, specifically police officers.
Councilman Johnny Eller said he would like to see the police officers get a better increase in salaries than was recommended in the budget.
Councilman Phil Wallace said he thought that the month of April would have been a more appropriate time to bring this up -not at the last hour. He said looking at the comparison that was done that the city was exactly in the middle of the police salaries in the surrounding area and very competitive with Marion and Mullins. “We’re in the last hour,” said Wallace. “We operate without a budget tomorrow.”
Eller asked if it was fair to the employees that they get the budget copy at the last minute. Wallace said Eller had been on the council and knew that they start thinking about it in March and April which he said was the time to bring changes not at the last hour.
Eller said they can’t get this information at the last minute and try to come to a resolution.
Wallace said Eller asked for it at the last minute. Eller said he didn’t ask for it at the last minute. He said he asked for it at the last council meeting and talked about it beforehand. He said he thought they still had time to cover it.
Wallace said he was not trying to be hard, and he thought the officers maybe do deserve more. He said it was not like they were in the cellar; they were exactly in the middle. He said they were very competitive with Marion and Mullins and he didn’t know why Bennettsville comes in so much more. He said again they were in the last hour.
Eller said he believed that they could come up with something.
Councilman Douglas Jackson said they could always come back and visit the salaries again later. He said they increased salaries one time during the budget year. He said he agreed with both Councilman Wallace and Councilman Eller. He said he agreed 100 percent that they can’t pay the officers enough, but it was the last hour.
Councilwoman Connie Manning asked looking at other salaries, what are we trying to do?
Eller said some police officers with the rank of sergeant or higher who had been with the city many years could not get the increase because they were above the threshold and missed out. He said they have to rely on council to give the cost of living increase.
Wagner said those officers did not get the jump in salary that those less experienced and lower in the ranks got because they were above the threshold, but they did get whatever the cost of living raise was. Wagner said in Bennettsville, they sell electricity and natural gas to their customers and can use those funds on the general fund side.
Eller said with a 3.4 percent increase that a sergeant making a $10.45 an hour would get a 36-cent per hour raise while a salaried employee gets a healthy raise if given a 3.4 percent increase. “Is it fair?” asked Eller, who reiterated that he wanted the police officers to get a raise. He said he understood what Wallace was saying about the eleventh hour. Eller said they could make it equal and give a $500 across the board increase, but he didn’t want to settle for that. He said he wanted the police officers to get an increase.
There was further discussion on the salaries by the council.
Mayor Todd Davis said they could get bogged down on pay and noted that they have a fiduciary responsibility for the city money. Davis then talked about the water and sewer budget.
City Manager Glen Wagner said he would do whatever the council wanted to as far as raises. He noted that a $500 across the board raise per employee would cost $41,000 and the 3.4 percent raise would cost $98,000 in the general fund.
There was discussion about advertising for available positions in the city. An employee in the Public Works department had retired and been replaced by a secretary with a lower salary. Eller asked if they had advertised the job. Wagner said he had a pool of applications that he could use available. Eller stated that he thought they should advertise these positions.
Wagner then asked council what they wanted to do about the salaries.
Wallace said he thought that they ought to stick with the budget they had, but that he was open to looking into salary increases later.
Eller stated that he would not vote for the 3.4 percent increase for the salaried employees and suggested giving a $500 increase to the salaried employees and a 3.4 percent increase to the hourly employees. There was further discussion.
Davis then called for the vote. Wallace made the motion to approve the budget, seconded by Jackson. Manning, Jackson, Wallace, and Councilman James Washington voted in favor of the motion. Eller and Davis voted against it. The motion passed with a 4-2 vote.
Eller then made a motion to give the police officers a $1.00 raise. Eller’s motion died due to the lack of a second.
Jackson then made a motion to pass the second reading of the water and sewer rates seconded by Wallace. The motion passed 5-1 with Eller voting against it.
Wallace made a motion to pass the Accommodations Tax Committee disbursement recommendations. This was seconded by Jackson. The motion passed 5-1 with Eller voting against it.
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Note: You can watch this meeting in its entirety exclusively on www.thedillonherald.com or on the Dillon Herald’s channel on YouTube.