Jackson Free Press

Sept. 8, 2011

Jackson City Council adopted the city's $317 million budget for fiscal year 2012 today after debating how to balance the budget and provide additional raises for the city's employees.

The council voted to include $950 annual raises for city employees by taking approximately $615,000 from the city's general fund to pay for the raises and balance the budget. All city employees will receive the $950 raises but council members hope that it will impact employees making less than $17,000 a year. The amendment gives employees making $17,000 or less 45.6 cents more per hour. Jackson mayor Harvey Johnson Jr.'s previously proposed 2-percent raise for employees equateed to an average of 14 cents per hour.

Last month, Ward 2 Councilman Chokwe Lumumba proposed that the city's budget include a 75 cents-per-hour raise for employees making $17,000 or less. Johnson and city attorneys, however, expressed concerns that the 75 cent-per hour raise would actually cost more with overtime and workman's compensation.

Johnson suggested this morning that council members increase the raise to equal $800 per employee starting Jan. 1, to keep the city's budget balanced. Council members and the mayor spent more than an hour this morning discussing ways to balance the budget and provide for a $950 raise for the city's employees.

Johnson said his administration has been working for months to balance the 2012 budget, and taking more than $600,000 out of the general fund means that the city will have to cut services. He couldn't say this morning what his administration would have to cut.

"It took quite bit of time to develop the budget, so to responds in five minutes about a $615,000 cut is asking a lot," Johnson said. "We will take the time to assess the situation."

Council President Frank Blunston said this morning that he filed a formal complaint with the Mississippi Ethics Commission yesterday over the mayor's refusal to provide him a list of names of city employees attached to their salaries. The city has provided Blunston with a list of all employees and a separate list of positions and salaries. The city responded to the JFP's request for the documents, asking for $45 for copies and staff time to retrieve the information.

During budget meetings last month, Bluntson did not offer a specific reason for wanting the names and salaries other than the fact that former Mayor Frank Melton had given the council that information in the past. Bluntson did not request the information last year. The information, however, is a matter of public record, according to previous legal decisions, and Bluntson does not need a reason to request it. Johnson maintains that determining employees' salaries is an administrative function and not for the council to decide.

Ward 7 Councilwoman Margaret Barrett- Simon was absent from today's meeting.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that only city employees making less than $17,000 would receive the $950 raises. All city employees will receive the ncrease.