Pay plan revisions for Cape workers expected Monday

The Cape Girardeau City Council will consider revising a proposed pay plan to include better raises for longtime police officers and firefighters.

City officials are expected to disclose the revisions at a special study session at 6 p.m. Monday at the Osage Community Centre.

"The goal is to get this worked out and try to move forward with this," said city manager Doug Leslie, who hopes any tinkering with the plan can be completed in advance of the council's Dec. 6 meeting.

At that meeting, the council is scheduled to give first reading to an ordinance amending the city budget and, in effect, implementing the new pay plan on Jan. 1.

The plan would boost police and firefighter salaries by an average of 12 percent and the salaries of other city employees by an average of 8 percent.

But many employees would receive far less than the average percentage raises, city workers and department heads say.

Leslie said city officials are trying to provide the best pay raises Cape Girardeau can afford. "We are trying to make this as fair and equitable as possible," he said.

The pay plan, unveiled earlier this month, has been criticized by public safety employees who say it fails to adequately reward longtime police officers and firefighters.

Mayor Jay Knudtson has said he wants to see better raises for veteran officers and firefighters. Higher salaries, he said, are essential for the city to recruit and retain police officers and firefighters.

The city already is planning to spend nearly $1.2 million in added wages and benefits for 370 full-time employees even before the council considers any revisions.

Knudtson said the city staff is studying how to pay for any added salary increases for public safety employees.

Councilman Charlie Herbst, a former Cape Girardeau police officer, said the pay plan overall offers employees good raises.

Herbst left the police department in August 1999 at the rank of corporal after 10 years of experience. If the proposed pay plan had been in effect, Herbst -- who is now in the computer business -- said he might have remained a police officer.

Council members suggested holding Monday's study session at the Osage Community Centre to accommodate city employees who want to attend.

More than 100 police officers, firefighters and other city employees crowded into the council chamber at city hall when the council held a study session on the pay plan on Nov. 8. A lack of seating forced many in the audience to stand during the study session.

"We clearly saw the response from employees," Knudtson said. "That was a crowded situation."

Leslie said discussion in the study session, as was the case in the first meeting, will be limited to the city council and staff. "It is not a question and answer type of thing," he said.

The city staff intends to meet with city employees by department once the council has decided on any revisions to the pay plan, Leslie said.

"We really need a clear sense of direction before those meetings are held," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123