While Iola city employees will continue to receive merit raises, City Council members agreed to not pay any form of across-the-board cost of living pay hike.
The decision came after a brief discussion Monday about the city’s 2015 budget, which City Administrator Carl Slaugh said, “was as tight as any budget we’ve had in the four years I’ve been here.”
The Council had considered a COLA hike even though the Consumer Price Index (which sets Social Security rates) carried no similar increase for 2016. Iola also uses CPI to determine whether COLA raises should be given.
Council members wondered if the city should give an across-the-board hike anyway, because of a 2014 wage study that revealed Iola employees earn less than their counterparts in similar-sized communities.
Adding a 2 percent COLA hike would have cost the city about $23,000, Slaugh noted.
A closer look at the budget douses those thoughts quickly.
The city’s general fund is nearly $600,000 in the hole as of Monday, Slaugh said.
That figure does not yet account for infusions from the city’s water and electric funds — the city typically uses both funds to supplement its general fund — but therein lies the rub.
The city plans to transfer $1.4 million from the electric fund before Dec. 31, and another $150,000 from the water fund, but neither fund has enough cash on hand yet to accommodate the transfers.
Slaugh rattled off a list of reasons for the deficit. A mild and wet 2015 has curtailed sales of both electricity and water, so revenues are down for both of those utilities.
Sales tax revenues are coming in below projections as well.
While the budget looks “tight,” Slaugh said he was confident the city would have enough money to properly close the books at the end of the year.
But, he agreed with Councilman Jon Wells, skipping any sort of across-the-board pay raise would be the most prudent course of action.
“We were hoping the numbers wouldn’t pan out this way,” Wells said. “Keeping payroll down is one of the things we really can manage in a warm winter.”
“I’d agree,” Council member Beverly Franklin said.
COUNCIL members approved 14 paid holidays for city employees in 2016, for New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 18), Presidents’ Day (Feb. 15), Good Friday (March 25), Memorial Day (May 30), Independence Day (July 4), Labor Day (Sept. 5), Columbus Day (Oct. 10), Veterans Day (Nov. 11), Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday (Nov. 24 and 25), and three days for Christmas.
The Council also announced there will not be a Dec. 28 meeting because all but a handful of members likely will be unavailable.
