{"id":12001,"date":"2012-06-01T08:07:48","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T12:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=12001"},"modified":"2012-06-11T13:35:01","modified_gmt":"2012-06-11T17:35:01","slug":"70-percent-raise-proposed-for-councilors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/city-council\/2012\/06\/01\/70-percent-raise-proposed-for-councilors\/","title":{"rendered":"70 Percent Raise Proposed for Councilors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Raleigh city manager is proposing a 73 percent increase to council\u2019s salary and benefit package, which seems large given the nominal raise and small cuts<\/a> other city employees are experiencing. But, the council hasn\u2019t had a raise in more than 20 years and their full salary will still be less than the average of comparable cities in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s proposed budget gives each member of the council a $5,000 raise and entitles them to city health benefits. That raises the full amount the city spends on the council\u2019s salary from around $110,000 to $190,000.<\/p>\n

City Manager Russell Allen said the increase needs to happen to get the council\u2019s salary in line with other major municipalities.<\/p>\n

In a literal comparison to other city employees, the council might seem most like part-time employees. Other part-time employees for the city like park workers or greenway keepers are paid hourly and don\u2019t receive benefits. They also aren\u2019t getting a raise this year.<\/p>\n

But Louis Buonpane, with the city manager\u2019s office, said it\u2019s more accurate to look at the council like the board of director\u2019s for a large company. They get a small stipend for their efforts directing the city.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the president of the city worker\u2019s union, Jerry Ledbetter, said city workers are dissatisfied with the large raise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have worked with them and respect the city manager and the city council,\u201d said Ledbettter, who is a sanitation worker. \u201cWhat they fail to realize is that they are not respecting the working people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hope the city workers would not be alarmed,\u201d said Allen. \u201cI would think they would look at it [the council\u2019s salary] and realize it needs to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like since ours hadn\u2019t changed in at least 20 years, we needed a change,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s a rather small amount.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, $80,000 represents around one-one hundredth of a percent of the city\u2019s $678.9 million budget.<\/p>\n

Councilor Mary-Ann Baldwin said the decision to consider a raise for the council in this year\u2019s budget was not brought up by the council, but by Will Allen, a private citizen who serves on the council-appointed Passenger Rail Task Force.<\/p>\n

\u201cRaleigh has tended to be fairly conservative and the people who have served on the city council do it not because of the money, but because of the public service,\u201d said Baldwin. \u201cIn difficult economic times you would want to make sure the council is more fairly compensated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do this right you are putting in at least 30 hours a week,\u201d she continued. \u201cI also run my own business, which basically means you are taking away from your earning capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

City staff compared Raleigh to Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro and Winston-Salem in deciding whether to recommend the raise.<\/p>\n

Even after adding $5,000 to the councilors\u2019 $10,000 salary, the city still comes up behind all other major municipalities except Winston-Salem.<\/p>\n

Mayor Nancy McFarlane and Mayor Pro Tem Russ Stephenson would receive the $5,000 raise on top of their respective $15,000 and $12,000 salaries.<\/p>\n

All councilors will now be eligible for city health benefits, which is true for at least three of the four major municipalities that city staff compared to Raleigh.<\/p>\n

The city will hold a public hearing on June 5 at City Hall and must adopt its budget by July 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen proposes a $1,000 raise for employees and a $5,000 for city councilors. In comparison to NC\u2019s other major municipalities, councilors salaries are still behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,15],"tags":[77,82],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}