City council grants raises for non-union workers

COSHOCTON – The city council has agreed to raise wages for 31 non-union employees, giving four department heads immediate increases ranging from 5.9 percent to 11.7 percent.

Twenty-five of the remaining workers, all unrepresented by a union, received an immediate 1.5 percent bump. Two supervisors paid by the hour received the biggest hikes to achieve parity with a similar supervisor.

All the raises take effect retroactively to Aug. 1. Other annual raises of 2.5 percent for all 31 employees will take effect on Jan. 1 in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The council approved all those raises Monday night via a 6-0 vote in special session.

Earlier this summer, the panel had approved 2.5 percent raises annually for three years for the city’s 16 firefighters and 36 non-uniformed workers.

While the firefighters union agreed to those raises and signed their three-year contract in early July, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2551 voted down their proposed pact on July 29, Mayor Steve Mercer told the council Monday.

Negotiations with the AFSCME union will resume later this month, Mercer said. Although that contract expired July 31, Mercer said, the city will continue to pay non-uniformed workers at their old rate until the new contract is worked out.

Efforts by The Tribune to contact AFSCME union representatives were unsuccessful Monday.

City Auditor Sherry Kirkpatrick called Monday’s increases “equity adjustments” sought by Mercer to bring local non-union employees’ salaries more in line with those earned in nearby communities.

“It was just a one-time adjustment that would allow the salaries to be more equitable,” Mercer said Monday.

“We’ve been at the bottom of the totem pole in almost all our positions,” Mercer told council members during the panel’s workshop July 20. “Because of where we’ve been financially for the past eight years, we’ve been suppressing wages.”

The public works director will earn the biggest raise in salary, from $49,419 annually to $55,213, for an 11.7 percent hike, effective Aug. 1.

The fire chief and utilities directors will receive 6.9 percent increases, from $58,547 to $62,587.

An increase of 5.9 percent will raise the safety-service director’s salary from $60,360 to $63,922.

The public works assistant director and water distribution supervisor would receive equity raises from $18.25 and $19.66 hourly, respectively, to $23.03 hourly. At-large Councilman Tom Grier recommended those increases to match the water maintenance supervisor’s wage.

Grier also recommended hiking Public Works Director Jim Ruby’s salary from $49,014 to $55,000 effective Aug. 1, rather than the $53,866 the mayor had suggested, saying Ruby had been promised that level and deserved it.

At-large Councilman Bob Pell then suggested starting instead at $55,213 annually, the level the mayor had recommended to begin in 2016.

Though Grier also recommended keeping Ruby’s next three raises at the same dollar amount as Mercer had originally recommended, the mayor on Monday instead recommended using the same 2.5 percent annual increase for three years for Ruby.

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