Pay Increases

Council member tries to resurrect issue of city workers’ wages

Divergence of opinion on the Bossier City Council is nothing new. But twice now divergence of passion to do the right thing has revealed an interesting schism and last Tuesday’s Bossier City Council meeting again demonstrated the apparently ardent differences in views regarding city worker compensation.

At-large council member and current council President Tim Larkin had placed on the agenda an item that would, if it had any council support, perhaps provided rank and file city employees and department heads a modest pay raise. This agenda item, however, did not even rate a motion to introduce. Larkin did not dwell on the lack of interest from other council members; instead he moved on with the agenda.

But at the conclusion of the meeting, Bossier Mayor Lo Walker thanked Larkin for his research on how to provide the pay increase, and Larkin said he appreciated the council’s attention, and that through the democratic process, members had expressed themselves relative to his agenda item.

At this point, the issue might have simply died an unfortunate death, except that at-large council member David Montgomery weighed in pointing out that the issue of a pay raise previously had been discussed at length, with a great deal of research by other people. He suggested that as far as another conversation on the issue, the council will look at next year’s budget beginning Sept. 15 and that would be the best time to bring the issue of a pay raise for the aforementioned people. He said he did not believe it was prudent, nor fiscally responsible to resuscitate the pay-raise issue with only two months of financial information.

To which Larkin suggested perhaps Montgomery’s comments might have been better delivered as a motion, rather than Montgomery’s opportunity to give a speech.

From this viewpoint, Larkin has a point.

But that’s not really the issue. Instead, it’s one of how 291 non-civil service Bossier City employees have kept up the same level of service to Bossier City citizens with only the wisp of a hope for any pay increase since the two percent increase in 2009. Larkin’s further point – department heads haven’t had a pay increase in seven years.

This was a Larkin issue at the time the 2015 budget was adopted at the end of 2014; and he tenaciously brought it back up last week after looking at the city’s fiscal standing with respect to what he and Walker identify as an excess in over and above the mandated 15 percent above the city’s general fund balance which is to be maintained by city ordinance.

Larkin said he is tenacious about this issue because he believes that the city did a “wonderful job” in 2008 of reversing a path that would have led to budgets that weren’t in balance and in which the city was spending more than it was taking in.

“We took the work of 836 people and we concentrated it on 712 people, so there’s a group here that are doing the work of a greater number of people, that’s bringing savings and efficiencies to the city. The corrections have been made. There is room in the general fund for the raises.”

Larkin said inflation has taken a bite out of the buying power of these employees’ pay.

“When I think about that, I see that it’s by these people’s ingenuity and their management, their talent that we are able to enjoy those [Bossier’s successes], I believe that what that equals is an inequity that needs to be addressed, and I don’t feel good that we don’t address it, and I truly would say that I wish we would have debated it.”

Walker largely echoed Larkin’s sentiments; both said the proposed increase of 2 percent would have cost the city $123,000 for the balance of 2015 and $177,000 per annum for succeeding years.

On the other side of the coin, in a post-meeting visit with Montgomery he clearly articulated his unchanged and strong opposition to changing fiscal course in the middle of the budget year and instead committed to doing “everything I can” to providing pay increases for Bossier City’s non-civil service employees in the 2016 budget.

From this standpoint and appreciating the merits of both sides of this issue, it’s my hope that the city council takes a position of improving the morale of city workers by turning every budget stone to provide a long overdue pay increase for Bossier City employees.

And that’s especially hoped for the people who week in and week out show up expediently very early on a Saturday morning, in a driving rain, to answer a panicky call (mine) to turn off the water at the meter because of a leak in the house (mine) – and do so ever so cheerfully.

In the meantime, maybe there could be a little attention to parliamentary procedure in the future. If there’s no motion or second to move an agenda item forward, there should be no comment at the end of the meeting regarding the item that died for lack of a motion.

Marty Carlson, a freelance writer, has been covering local news for the past 17 years. She can be reached via email at martycarlson1218@ gmail.com.