City to discuss wage increase

Cape Girardeau will send out paychecks on Friday to part-time workers, many of whom will continue to receive pay below Missouri's new $6.50 minimum wage.

Officials at city hall acknowledged Wednesday that widespread public disapproval is making the decision not to raise pay difficult to stand by. Staff and the city council now are considering ways to pay for raises, including an increase in parks fees or a reduction of part-time staff. The issue will be discussed during Monday's city council meeting.

The story, Heather Brooks, assistant to the city manager, said, "is an animal of its own right now, and the perception part of it is something council is very concerned about."

According to inquiries made by the Southeast Missourian, Cape Girardeau is the only Missouri municipality not raising salaries to comply with the wage increase approved in November's election as Proposition B. The city cites a legal interpretation of the minimum wage statute that it believes exempts municipalities.

Brooks said she does not want to scare people with talk of staffing cuts or big increases in parks fees but adds the $110,000 needed to implement the wage increase "is not just lying around."

Mayor Jay Knudtson agreed.

"When you get hit with these one-time financial issues, it's tough," he said.

Knudtson pointed to a proposed increase in electric rates by AmerenUE which could cost the city an additional $200,000 and a spike in health-care costs in 2006 that hurt the city financially.

Cape Girardeau, though, has reserve funds. As mandated by city charter, the city has $3.4 million in its budget as a "rainy day" or emergency reserve fund. Use of part or all of the fund requires unanimous approval by the city council. An emergency is defined by the city charter as something causing "a significant loss of revenue or increase in costs to the city."

Knudtson said city hall should be careful about spending that money, saying, "The right answer is not always to keep dipping into reserves. It's there for major issues and what I would call catastrophic issues," he said.

But according to the Missouri Department of Labor Standards, Cape Girardeau is breaking the law to avoid this "emergency."

"There's not much wiggle room here," DLS director Alan Dillingham said.

"If some municipality or some business group wants to file a suit to change the law or ask legislators to change something that's one thing. But if a municipality is not happy with the provisions in the law then there's nothing that we as a division can do about that," he said.

Dillingham added that DLS has no power to directly fine cities found to be in violation of the law but would dispatch an investigator if an employee files a complaint. The resulting investigation would then be used as evidence in the court system.

Complaint forms are available on the DLS Web site.

If Cape Girardeau was found by a court to be violating the law it would be liable for the full amount of the wage rate plus damages of an equal amount. The city would also pay for all attorney fees.

Dillingham said he is "surprised" Cape Girardeau would take such a visible stance against the popular ballot initiative that passed with more than 75 percent of the vote.

The only employers exempt from paying minimum wage, according to the state's interpretation, are small businesses that gross less than $500,000 annually.

In order to avoid a court fight, the city may decide to raise the money through increased parks and pool fees. In April, 80 percent of Cape Girardeau voters voted in favor of an amendment to the city charter allowing the parks department to raise fees more than 5 percent without a vote.

Pool fees this year rose an average of 45 cents in part, said officials, to allow Cape Girardeau to offer competitive wages to its lifeguards.

Cape Girardeau aquatics supervisor Chad Sierman said his guards' wages rose from $5.15 to $5.80 this year after the fee increase. But wages of those running concessions and most people teaching swim lessons stayed at the minimum.

Sierman said he was invited to city hall one month ago to discuss the minimum wage issue and encouraged the city to raise its pay.

"It's just a matter of you get what you pay for," Sierman said. "The better qualified people will go somewhere else where they can make more money ... there will be a decline in service."

Sierman said it would cost the city about $20,000 annually to raise wages for the approximately 67 people he employs at Capaha and Central Municipal pools.

Cutting back on staff, said Sierman, is not an option because it would be unsafe for swimmers. A more likely result would be a cutback in pool hours.

"We tried that two or three years ago when we closed at 5 instead of 8," he said. "We got lots of complaints."

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245