City Council talks pay raises

Pay raises could be coming for Lorain’s professionals, managers, nonunion workers and City Council representatives.

Meanwhile, the city’s Information Technology Department could be revamped, according to Council.

On March 26, the Finance & Claims Committee voted for the full board to consider legislation governing pay scales for various city workers not covered by the contracts for the police, firefighters and municipal workers.

“I believe a lot of these raises are long

overdue,” said Ward 8 Councilman Joshua Thornsberry.

Lorain is a city worker training ground for staff who go to other cities because Lorain is not competitive to keep the best and brightest workers, Thornsberry said. He spoke in discussion about the legislation dealing with managers and professionals.

Council generally agreed the city staffers merit pay increases, although Council President Joel Arredondo noted “it’s just a matter of our finances.”

When Lorain has the money, the city can give raises to workers, but if the city cannot afford it, then workers get no added pay, Arredondo said.

Councilwoman-at-Large Mary Springowski said the raises are well deserved and Councilman-at-Large Mitch Fallis agreed, adding he supports Lorain paying market cost for the public employees.

The city documents included a two-page financial and economic outlook by Mayor Chase Ritenauer and Auditor Karen Shawver. They reviewed issues including the city budget, union contracts, state and federal government funding and temporary income and property taxes in the city.

Raises for Council would not go into effect until 2020, so the vote would not affect the pay for current members. That issue prompted the most discussion.

With base pay of $12,332,

Lorain Council has the lowest Council members salary among five cities including Parma, Elyria, Lakewood and Westlake, Thornsberry said. Council members do not receive medical or dental benefits in Lorain, but they do in Parma, Elyria and Lakewood, according to the city documents.

When Council cut its medical and dental benefits, that amounted to a 56 percent pay cut, Thornsberry said. He added he is proud to be part of the Council who did that because the city needed it, but there was a long-term goal to add some pay to Lorain Council members.

The Council pay raise would cost the city an estimated $35,244, according to the city figures.

In the new legislation, ward Council members would earn $14,500 a year; at-large members would earn $14,750 a year; and the Council president would earn $15,000 a year, starting in 2020.

As of 2017, Council salaries were set $12,332 per member and at $12,760 for the Council president, according to figures from Shawver’s Office.

Ward 4 Councilman Greg Argenti said the board should wait to see how the city’s finances fare through 2018. Resident John Franko also recommended waiting until 2019 because there is no rush to approve the legislation now.

Fallis voted against Council considering pay hikes for Council members. Residents John Wargo and Chuck Becker, who frequently attend the Council meetings, also spoke in the public discussion.

Managers and professionals

For managers and professionals, the pay change would cost at least $51,000.

That is based on $1,000 lump sum retroactive bonuses for 2017 for 34 managers, totaling $34,000; and $500 lump sum bonuses for 34 managers for a total of $17,000 for this year.

Managers and professionals also would get longevity pay of $50 per year for years five to 19; and $100 a year for years 30 through 25. The longevity is based on the scale for Lorain’s unionized municipal workers and the longevity pay for managers and professionals would be a maximum of $3,400.

Managers and professionals also had hours of work adjusted from 75 hours to 80 hours.

Nonunion workers

The city would pay out $144,000 for additional wages for nonunion workers this year.

That includes a 2017 lump sum retroactive bonus of $1,000 for each of the 90 workers, for a total of $90,000, and a 2018 lump sum bonus of $500 for the workers, totaling $45,000.

The longevity pay would be $50 per year for years five through 19; and $100 per year for years 20 through 25.

The total longevity pay would be capped at $9,000.

The Information Technology Department will come up for discussion soon in another meeting of the Finance & Claims Committee, Koziura said.