Winder council poised to approve mid-year raises for employees; vote will be ...

The Winder City Council is planning to vote tonight on giving 3-percent raises in the middle of the fiscal year to all 168 city employees. The raises would be on top of Christmas bonuses that the outgoing mayor reportedly has approved.

The unbudgeted raises would cost $177,000 plus an estimated $13,540 for federal payroll taxes, for a total of about $190,540.

Mayor Chip Thompson proposed the raises at Monday night’s council work session, but the council will vote at tonight's business session, which starts at 6 in the Winder Community Center.

It will be Thompson’s last council meeting as mayor.

Mayor-elect David Maynard said Monday night that he would oppose the raises. He said he could not in good conscience ask local citizens who have lost jobs or been furloughed or lost homes to pay more for the services of city employees who already are making good salaries and getting better benefits than most people in the community.

“It’s not that we don’t care about employees,” he said. “But we are forcibly taking money from people that can’t afford it.”

In fiscal year 2010, taxes comprised one-half of the revenue for the city's General Fund. The other half of the operating fund's revenues came primarily from the sale of utility services to both city and county customers.

Councilman Bob Dixon said he would prefer to award raises based on merit.

However, Thompson’s argument – that most city employees have not had raises in five years – seemed to hold sway over the rest of the council.

Councilman Sonny Morris said that the city has $10 million in “reserves” and can afford the raises. He asked Thompson if that weren’t correct, and the mayor said it is what the city has “now.”

Actually, that figure represents the amount of cash the city has on deposit for the operation of the government for the last half of the fiscal year. Additional revenues will arrive over the next six months from utility profits, though natural gas profits will be directly tied to how cold the winter is.

In response to some of the objections raised – as well as a parting shot to the often-split council he is leaving behind – Thompson noted that the city pays 100 percent of the cost of insurance for council members. He said removing that $120,000 expense would cover most of the proposed cost-of-living raises for employees.

Councilman Bob Dixon and others said they would welcome a full review of compensation and benefits. Dixon and others said they did not realize when they ran for office that free health coverage was a perk. Dixon said he still has to pay about $700 per month for unused Medicare and Medicare supplemental policies that he would lose access to if he canceled them.

Dixon questioned the mayor’s timing in bringing up the last-minute idea of removing the council’s health benefits, since Thompson had been on council previously for eight years and was now winding up his four-year term as mayor.

Thompson said he gets his health coverage through the state’s plan for educators. He also noted that for the current fiscal year, which began on July 1, the financial impact would be about half of the annual cost of the raises.