The Birmingham City Council met for their second budget workshop Wednesday. They spent most of the meeting talking about possible raise options for city employees.
Council members spent over two hours laying all their cards on the table. They talked about the one million dollar proposed budget growth, the nearly 20 million dollar drop in departmental budgets. and whether they could do anything for non profits. But a majority of their conversation centered around raises.
Councilman Roderick Royal says 70% of the 365-million dollar proposed budget is personnel cost. He says around 26-million dollars can be moved for things like non profits or raises. Roderick says the Mayor is proposing giving nearly half of the employees a 5% merit raise. However, most of the council feels every employee should get a raise, even if it's a one-percent cost of living raise, but that adds up. Some asked is it even feasible during this economic crunch?
Valerie Abbott says "We're still in a recession. The city's revenues are not increasing and it's very difficult to give people a raise when you don't have the money. In order for us to carve out additional funds, we have to cut someone else."
Roderick Royal says "I think everyone on the council realizes that after a 2-year absence of any kind of raise, the employees are due a raise. The issue is how do you do it, do you give it to half of them, or do you give it to all of them?"
Royal says they'll have another budget workshop this Sunday, more are slated after that. The council will determine Sunday how they'll allocate money in the budget and if they'll make any changes.
