Jamie Munks
The State Journal-Register
After hearing that nonunion city employees are receiving cost-of-living wage increases this fiscal year, Springfield Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin said he plans to again seek to require city council approval for any such decisions in the future. In an email to aldermen Nov. 21, Mayor Mike Houston said he had notified nonunion city employees on Nov. 2 that they were getting a 2 percent raise.
Earlier this year, McMenamin proposed an ordinance that would have required council approval for any “across-the-board wage increases to municipal employees not represented by a union,” which the council shot down in a 3-7 vote.
McMenamin, Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman and Ward 9 Ald. Steve Dove were the three to vote in favor of the proposed ordinance, but McMenamin said last week that he plans to raise the issue again during the upcoming budget process, citing the raises’ impact on the city’s police and fire pension debt.
“Major spending decisions like these, involving almost 400 nonunion city employees, have a major fiscal impact — up to a million dollars depending on the percentage increase,” McMenamin said. “Therefore this spending should be approved by explicit council ordinance and not by the mayor acting alone. These pay increases also have the fiscal effect of adding to the city’s long-term pension debt.”
Cost-of-living adjustments for city workers have varied over the past 12 years from 0.5 percent to 3.5 percent, but they’ve been consistent under Houston’s administration the past three years at 3 percent annually. The raises, which are based on inflation, are on top of any merit raises doled out to employees during the course of the year.
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McMenamin frequently advocates for taking an aggressive stance on tackling the city’s pension debt, seeing it as a higher priority than some other spending. “I would think the joint council-mayor approach would be something that’s welcomed. Spending is a shared responsibility,” McMenamin said. “There’s been a structural budget deficit for 20 years, and we need to solve that, which allows us to underfund pensions continually.”
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 