City Staffers May See Pay Increase Next Year

A raise may be coming to city employees next year.

Commissioners met today to hammer out the details of Dunedin’s 2012 proposed budget.

City Manager Rob DiSpirito set aside $331,416 for a 3 percent pay increase for city staff. The funds come in part from money due back from the state for years of overpaid .

“The employees have gone the past two years without increases. We lost 62 positions. People are working longer and harder … without additional compensation,” he said.

The commissioners largely agreed.

“This is the equitable thing to do,” Commissioner Julie Scales said. “People have endured the worst economic situation in 80 years.”

Commissioners grappled over how best to divvy the pay increase — a one-time bonus or an increased salary.

DiSpirito said that staffers preferred a salary increase: “Something that would increase the base and give them something to build on in the future as opposed to a bonus.”

Mayor Dave Eggers said that given the poor economic climate, the city wasn’t in a position to guarantee that the additional 3 percent would be there in 2013.

Commissioner David Carson said the idea of an across-the-board, 3 percent salary increase would reward poor employees and do little to encourage high performers.

He preferred a 1 percent, cost-of-living salary increase for staffers and then a one-time, performance-based bonus.

The commissioners, again, largely agreed.

“This would be a catch up with inflation,” DiSpirito said. A cost-of-living increase "gets us back on track, although in a modest way.”

Commissioner Julie Ward Bujalski asked for updated figures once the 1 percent raise was considered. She didn’t want the money left over for bonuses to be parceled across staffers into paltry amounts.

“Five-hundred dollars isn’t going make a difference to anybody. Not that it’s not a lot of money,” she said, emphasizing that families really needed a reprieve — a sizable enough bonus to have real impact on their financial situation.

The commissioners will revisit pay increases with updated figures on Monday during the finalizing process of budget workshops.