Police officers and firefighters could receive a 7.5 percent salary increase in the city’s upcoming budget — a pay raise proponents say is necessary to retain good employees and compete with neighboring communities for new ones.
“We’ve never fallen this far behind,” said City Councilman Mike Barber, who proposed the increase earlier this month. “We’re competing against other law enforcement agencies that pay better with less headache, and we’re losing.”
Other City Council members are less enthusiastic. The proposed increase is more than twice the recommended pay raise included in the budget for the rest of the city’s employees, which Councilwoman Sharon Hightower said implies that public safety workers are more important than everyone else.