When the Starkville Board of Aldermen Monday voted to move forward with plans for an ad valorem tax increase and a hike in sanitation fees, Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins was vehemently opposed.
Among Perkins” concerns was a line item for an extra $46,100 in combined salary adjustments for 25 city employees. The pay raises were implemented in the budget proposal, which aldermen will approve or deny on Sept. 7, to provide salaries that are “competitive” with salaries of employees in similar positions in cities the same size as Starkville, Mayor Parker Wiseman said.
Perkins asked for a copy of the recommended salary adjustments and received it Tuesday, but once again admonished his fellow board members who approved the budget proposal Monday. One of his main concerns is the fact that the city employs 247 people, plus another 35 at the Starkville Electric Department, and only 25 will receive pay increases if the board on Sept. 7 passes the budget proposal it approved Monday. No other city employees would receive a pay raise, but they do have to contribute an extra 1.75 percent to the state”s Public Employees Retirement System.
“They either need to approve a salary adjustment for all of our city employees or for none of them at all,” Perkins said Tuesday. “This list of people (receiving raises) I do not oppose, but I also do not support it. It”s unfair to the rest of these city employees who are not going to receive a salary adjustment. I do not agree how these names were subjectively selected and I do not agree how this city handled this budget situation.”
Among the largest proposed salary adjustments, Starkville Municipal Court administrator Tony Rook would receive an 11.4-percent raise, from $43,774.22 per year to $48,774.22, and Sanitation Department director Sharon Boyd would receive an 11.2-percent raise, from $44,802.40 to $49,802.40 per year.
Perkins also was concerned because he is a member of the city”s budget committee, but believes Wiseman and Ward 2 Alderwoman and vice-mayor Sandra Sistrunk, who served as chairperson of the city”s budget committee, took the reins in constructing the budget proposal approved Monday without input from him and the rest of the board.
“The mayor and vice-mayor are dictating this city”s budget,” Perkins said.
Aldermen will hold a public hearing at their Sept. 7 meeting before voting on the budget proposal during their regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.
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