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Councilmember Dr. David Varner stated he would like to preface his remarks by saying that we <br />have a lot of hard working employees and we do a good job trying to pay them well. We are not <br />a private business that has large increases in revenue on an annual basis. We have a lot of good <br />employees who may be working for a good deal less than they could in the private sector. But we <br />don't lay people off or fire people frequently and we have a good pension program. In a time <br />when the standard across the board raises seems to be two percent (2 %) to four percent (4 %), it <br />is hard to justify raises over ten percent (10 %) even if they are deserved. If in fact these raises are <br />necessary, we can take this at an annual basis a little bit at a time. Despite the fact that these <br />employees may be worth it, it is difficult to justify these raises at this time. It is not necessarily <br />proper to compare public to private sector salaries. He stated he doesn't know what the exact <br />answer is but he cannot support extraordinary raises of this nature is not something he can <br />support. This has nothing to do with the hard work of those employees because all of our <br />employees work very hard. <br />Councilmember Davis asked Councilmember Dr. Varner if he will propose any changes to this <br />bill. <br />Councilmember Dr. Varner stated he has some thoughts that he may make in a motion this <br />evening. <br />Committee Chair White stated she feels it is Councilmember Dr. Varner's right to make such a <br />motion if he wishes this evening but we as a Committee have already sent the bill forward with a <br />favorable recommendation. <br />Councilmember Dr. Varner stated he will consider doing so where the raises are dialed back but <br />still given to those positions at a smaller increase. We can look at the numbers and see what <br />happens. If we are trying to do extraordinary raises for some of these positions we should do a <br />little bit better than routine for the other positions. He stated we only received the salary <br />ordinance two (2) weeks ago so we did not receive a lot of advanced warning on this. <br />Councilmember Williams- Preston asked if Councilmember Dr. Varner's proposal would also <br />affect the positions that are receive a title change and change in responsibilities. <br />Councilmember Dr. David Varner stated we have to look at this in totality and maybe there are <br />some who do justify those raises but it would still be tricky to give someone a twenty percent <br />(20 %) raise in his view regardless of title changes. <br />Councilmember Scott stated just to reiterate we can only subtract from the budget and not add to <br />the budget. When any proposal comes to the Council it has to be the same or lower than the <br />budget the Administration provided. <br />Committeemember Williams- Preston stated she was unclear as to what the Deputy Code <br />Enforcement Director would do. It is a position that we are adding with a salary of $75,000. She <br />stated she is unclear how that will provide support or help the department. That is a big number. <br />7 <br />