Cape OKs plan to increase employee pay

Saying it was the best the city could afford, the Cape Girardeau City Council approved a pay plan Monday night that will give all city employees pay raises starting in January.

The council voted unanimously for the pay plan as part of revisions to the current city budget that includes an alternative trash service to replace the spring cleanup program that was axed as part of budget cuts earlier this year.

The pay plan will provide 13.4 percent pay raises on average for police officers and firefighters and 7.8 percent pay raises on average for all other city employees, city officials said.

But Scott Killen, an attorney for the Cape Girardeau Police Officers Benevolent Association, said the pay plan still won't raise pay to median salary levels for public safety officers in comparable cities.

"If the city adopts the pay plan, it needs to be fully funded," he told the council.

He also said city staff need to do a better job of communicating with the police association regarding salary issues.

Gail Estes, whose husband is a 10-year veteran of the police force, said her husband has to take a second job to provide for the family of four.

The pay plan, she said, will leave him with a salary of only $1,100 more a year than a beginning patrolman. The plan also won't keep veteran officers from leaving for better-paying jobs elsewhere and doesn't address inadequate police salaries as the public had been promised. "I believe the public has been misled," she said.

Mayor Jay Knudtson acknowledged that the pay plan isn't perfect, although revisions have been made to better compensate veteran city employees. "We only have so much money," he said.

Just under $700,000 of the estimated $1.3 million in added spending for the pay raises is going to increase salaries for police officers and firefighters, city officials said.

"We have accomplished what we have set out to do," Knudtson said.

"I think this makes us competitive on filling positions in the police department," city manager Doug Leslie said.

Councilman Jay Purcell expressed concern about raising trash and sewer fees to pay for raises for sanitation workers and sewer employees.

But Leslie said it was the only way to pay for those salaries, and in the end Purcell voted with the rest of the council in approving first reading of the budget ordinance.

As part of the measure, the city plans to adopt a new trash pickup program to replace the spring cleanup program.

Every household in the city would be allowed one free Wednesday pickup each year in which city workers will pick up discarded appliances and other items.

The pickups would occur year-round except during holiday weeks. Public works director Tim Gramling said the city plans to implement the new program in April at a cost of about $10,500 a year. The new service could cost the city an additional $5,000 in lost revenue from decreased use of regular, fee-based Wednesday pickups and a drop in the sale of stickers to put out extra bags of trash, Gramling said.

As a result, the net cost could be $15,500, he said.

Council members said the new service should address public concerns over the loss of the spring cleanup program.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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