“That’s the first step that has to happen before we can make line-by-line adjustments throughout the 800-plus employees who work here,” the mayor said. “If our expectation is to maintain this beautiful city that we have and to keep you safe and all that, then the priority has to be the people who work here.”
As I have reported earlier, the compensation study conducted by Evergreen found the City’s salaries were in the 21st percentile. Reeves said, “Of a hundred municipalities, 79 pay better than we do.”
“This will be the largest single-payer reform in the history of the city. It’ll be a three-year phased approach. That’ll be more than $5 million; it’ll be about two and a half million of that out of the general fund. There’ll be no changes to the budget for this year,” Mayor Reeves said.
He added, “Seventy-five percent of that money is going to people who make less than $60,000 a year.” – That covers about 242 of the City’s 800 employees, according to the mayor.
His team is still working on individual raises that will be rolled out in January if the Council approves the new pay ranges.
New Welcome Sign
The Florida Department of Transportation has approved the new Welcome sign for the foot of the Chappie James Bridge. Mayor Reeves hopes what FDOT budgeted for the sign will cover the construction costs.
“Like anything else, I’ve got a little concern,” he said. “The number allotted to us for that sign was allotted in 2018, and we’re bidding something in 2023. So, 2018 construction value and 2023 bidding has us crossing all our fingers. “We’ll see what happens, and hopefully we get as close as possible to budget, but we’ll find out.”