WILMINGTON — Pay increases for Wilmington’s police and fire departments has been top of mind for city council members, but last week they were given a taste of what paying for more competitive wages would look like — and not everyone was comfortable with the number.
READ MORE: Fire department leader lays out pay proposal for city council budget discussion
City staff proposed a plan to bring its first-responder wages in line with benchmark cities, such as Asheville and Raleigh, at council’s budget meeting last week.
“What we’re recommending is that we shift our ranges to align with the market medians for all ranks, and adjust the spread of the ranges to get into better alignment with the market,” Human Resources Director Clayton Roberts said.
Fire and police have been calling on the city to address its pay ranges over the last half-year as both departments have struggled with retaining and recruiting employees, many of whom leave for better pay and benefits.
Under the HR team’s plan, firefighter pay would go up 4.4% with new firefighters making $47,902 annually, up from $45,893.
For the police department, staff is recommending rates increase by 6.2% with new officer pay going from $48,000 to almost $52,000.
However, the higher ranks — corporal, sergeant, lieutenant — will be receiving a larger increase to alleviate some of the compression the pay scale has experienced over the years as the city has focused on raising lower ranks’ pay. Compression occurs when there is little pay difference between the differently ranked positions in an organization.
Council member Kevin Spears said he warned continuing to raise only lower ranks’ pay would sow resentment within the police department.
“I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so,” Spears said, adding he didn’t want any city employee to feel like they were undervalued.
Staff had a plan for non-public safety employees as well, proposing a 3% raise across the board along with classifying some positions differently. The HR wanted to get each position’s pay within range of peer cities, that threshold being set at 10%. For any positions that wouldn’t be under that 10%, staff is looking at putting them into a higher class, meaning a higher salary range, to remain competitive. Positions affected include the city’s paralegals, grounds workers and RTS workers.
Overall, implementing the recommended pay changes would cost the city an extra $4.7 million in the next fiscal year, not counting benefits. If council wanted to implement them mid-year, $2.35 million would need to be pulled from the city’s fund balance.
Council would also need to locate a funding source for the added, recurring expense. Right now, city staff have counted up $1.6 million in general fund surplus, but with the fiscal year only half over, the surplus could be as high as $5.6 million, staff estimate. Though if it came in under the $4.7 million, council would be faced with cutting expenses in other areas or generating more revenue — like through raising property taxes for the second year in a row.
Council member Luke Waddell was not happy with being presented with the general fund increase.
“I think increasing the pay for police, fire, ground workers — folks that are doing on the ground jobs — is something that’s a priority for this council … but I think there’s a couple ways that we can get around to it,” Waddell said.
He suggested each department be tasked with shoring up money to help pay for the salary increases, then adding that council’s budget workshops should involve more brainstorming and less adding to the budget.
“I can deliver you a budget that’s balanced at any tax rate period — I can do that,” City Manager Tony Caudle said. “My question will be: Do you have the appetite, and if so, what services would you be willing to adjust?”
Caudle said he doubted the city’s departments could complete Waddell’s exercise by the next budget session, as requested by the council member.
Council members David Joyner and Charlie Rivenbark indicated their support for implementing the mid-year raises for police and fire, which would cut the needed fund balance withdrawal from $2.35 million to $1.6 million.
“It’s kind of like the definition of insanity — we keep doing the same things over and over and over,” Rivenbark said. “We’re sitting here at the table, year in, year out, with the same situation. [The first responders] are the ones, the presenters, that marched it out. I’ve met with them, and I would agree with Luke and like to pull the trigger.”
However, Spears said he was not on board with only giving raises to first responders.
“We were forced to have this conversation, I think we would naturally on our own, as we have been in discussion, but our arm was twisted,” Spears said, referring to the pressure from police officers and firefighters to increase pay. “We were forced to have a conversation. And so no, we can’t just do something for one part of this organization because guess what? What if stormwater? What if trash, they say we’re going to design the same campaign.”
However, Mayor Bill Saffo, Mayor Pro Tem Clifford Barnett and council members Salette Andrews were still on the fence about the mid-year implementation and were not prepared to make a decision.
In response, Caudle said staff would not move forward with drafting a resolution unless otherwise prompted by at least two members of council.
“We might see it on an agenda soon,” Waddell said.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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