At last week’s council meeting, McKay discussed longevity pay again, and again stated he was not in favor of it during bad economic times.
“Money is everybody’s problem these days, and we are in a recession,” McKay said. “Thank God we are not struggling as bad as some cities. You have heard about our neighbors and the cuts they have made to personnel, hours, etc. If I think out loud … the cities that are doing good and not having any problems are Pell City and Moody who have tremendous amounts of businesses. Then you look at Ragland and Steele. They do not have full-time fire departments and as many police officers. We’re a city sort of in between. Riverside, Springville and Argo are having problems. Ashville is having problems, but we are not in the hole as bad as it could be.”
McKay said Ashville officials are going to have to be very careful with spending because this will be the third year the city’s general fund has taken money from the Water Department to continue operating.
“We took $75,000 two years ago, $75,000 last year, and we will have to visit it again this year, although I do not think it will be that much due to the 1 cent increase on sales tax we recently passed,” McKay said. “I want all the employees to understand that I am not trying to hurt anybody, but to save the town and everybody’s job who is working here right now.”
McKay said that through the years, when the money was there, he was the first one to step up for the employees.
“As a councilman 22 years ago, at my very first meeting, I voted to give a $1 per hour raise across the board to every employee,” McKay said. “We felt the employees were underpaid. Since that day, it has been a raise for our employees every year but one. Back then, I was for giving longevity pay and at Christmas time, we were giving each employee $150 bonus.”
McKay said he meant it when he stated at the previous council meeting that longevity pay was a bad idea in the current economy.
“When we are losing $75,000 per year and we’ve had to go up on water rates and sales tax to survive and get out of a hole, it’s not very smart to be buying back vacation time and giving longevity pay,” McKay said. “You are really fortunate to be working here as opposed to some other municipality, and you know it.”
McKay noted that the council might decide to leave longevity pay as it is.
“But I will tell you this, if we pay it out and the money is not there, somebody’s getting laid off, because I’m not going in the hole anymore after this year,” McKay said. We’re not here just to keep everybody as fat as we can and as well-paid as we can. We are here to supply services to the community. If cutting longevity pay is the worst hit our employees receive, they have come out really good.”
Councilman David Thompson said he is all for taking longevity pay away, but he is not in favor of taking that money and giving it to a certain few employees.
“You know what that’s going to do,” Thompson said. “It will cause tension between all the workers. Everyone who hired in knew what they were going to make when they hired in. At the last council meeting you sat here and singled out four different people (employees).”
“I didn’t say I wanted to give them raises,” McKay said.
“Yes you did,” Thompson said.
“Well, OK, I do want to give them raises when possible,” McKay said. “They’re not going to get it unless this council OKs it anyway.”
City Clerk Bertha Wilson said the longevity pay for this fiscal year has already been paid — it was paid last November.
“What we’re talking about right now is for next year,” Wilson said.
Thompson said they need to sit down, work out a budget, and if it is there, fine, and if it’s not, fine.
Councilman Mike Sheffield said he was appreciative of the employees and that it is due to the hard work of the employees, attempting to keep expenses in line, that the city has not had any layoffs.
“We did give a raise last year, and that was about $30,000,” Sheffield said. “It looks very bleak that we will be able to give raises this year. The question then is, can we even give the longevity pay, and I do not know the answer to that. I don’t think I’ll know until further in the fall. If we do have the money available, do you give longevity pay or use it to give spot raises with? I can’t make a recommendation either way right now.”
Councilman Bobby Bowling made a motion to go ahead and give the employees’ longevity pay, but his motion died without a second.
Sheffield then made a motion to wait until budget time to see where the city stood financially. Thompson seconded the motion and it passed.
Contact Gary Hanner at ghanner@thestclairtimes.com.
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