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REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 24, 2016 <br />up to a fiscal cliff spending as much money as you can, you approach it as conservatively as you <br />can. <br />Councilmember Dr. Varner stated his proposal is that the salary ordinance is reworked so that <br />any position on the salary ordinance which had an increase of two percent (2 %) to five percent <br />(5 %) proposed will receive the increase as proposed. Any proposal on the salary ordinance <br />which exceed five percent (5 %) but were less than ten percent (10 %) shall receive a four percent <br />(4 %) increase. That is an even across the board number. Anyone with greater than a ten percent <br />(10 %) to whatever the maximum amount was, shall receive a five percent (5 %) raise. He stated <br />he chose three, four, and five percent (3 %, 4 %, 5 %) because by and large the numbers we are <br />working with for everyone else are those percentages. By and large that is where we have been in <br />the past years. We have increased some salaries in the past and while we have some very good <br />staff, we also have some very well paid staff. Councilmember Dr. David Varner made a motion <br />to amend Bill 36 -16 as he just previously described. Councilmember Oliver Davis seconded the <br />motion. <br />Chairperson Gavin Ferlic asked for discussion on the amendment. <br />Councilmember Dr. David Varner clarified his proposal. He stated five percent (5 %) raises on <br />some of these salaries are very large raises and if you do it for a couple of years you could go a <br />long way to bringing them up to where they want to be. He stated what he doesn't want to see <br />happen is we continue with raises and spending and then we reach the fiscal cliff and then there <br />is talk about raising taxes. We know this fiscal cliff is coming and should prepare for it. <br />Councilmember White asked if Councilmember Dr. David Varner asked what the dollar amount <br />of savings is that would be that would come from this proposal. <br />Councilmember Dr. David Varner stated we would have that calculated if this is adopted. <br />Councilmember White stated she believed this would lead to some positions not being funded <br />correctly because you would have some inequities since some salaries have not been funded at <br />the level they should have been. <br />Councilmember Tim Scott stated while we did receive the summation of all the salaries that were <br />being increased more than two percent (2 %) two (2) weeks ago, they were all part of the public <br />presentations that go back to day one (1) when we started the budget process. He stated he was <br />fully aware of what the Legal Department had presented in their PowerPoint and yellow sheets <br />when those came up. We were fully aware of what these salaries were as they came down to us. <br />It is a very nice to have a summation of the salaries but they were all there from the beginning. <br />Councilmember Voorde stated he agrees with Councilmember Scott that all the information was <br />there, the light wasn't focused on it until we received the actual ordinance. He stated we have to <br />be very careful about using TIF funding for salaries. The Council when suggesting using TIF to <br />alleviate the burden on the General Fund probably meant in terms of capital projects and public <br />safety. If we start to fund ongoing City operations with TIF funds, we better be careful because <br />every session the Indiana Legislature considers curtailing TIF funds. <br />Councilmember Williams- Preston stated she likes the idea of this amendment in refiguring the <br />ordinance but she stated it is hard for her to be able to say that is actually what we should do. <br />There are probably some cases of these increases that make sense because there was actually a <br />change in responsibilities. It would be hard to just do this across the board. She stated she isn't <br />sure what the answer is but is pretty sure this isn't it. <br />Chairperson Gavin Ferlic called for a roll call on Councilmember Dr. David Varner's <br />amendment to Bill 63 -16. The motion failed by a roll call vote of seven (7) nays and two (2) <br />ayes. (Councilmember Dr. David Varner and Councilmember Oliver Davis). <br />Councilmember Oliver Davis made a motion to send Bill 63 -16 to the full Council with an <br />unfavorable recommendation. There was no second to the motion. The motion failed. <br />Councilmember Tim Scott made a motion to send Subsitutue Bill 63 -16 to the full Council with <br />a favorable recommendation. Councilmember Jo M. Broden seconded the motion which carried <br />20 <br />