City Council Agrees to Pay Raises for City's Non-Union Workers

The City Council signed off on successive pay raises over three years for the city's non-union employees last week without much discussion.

The raises (2 percent each year, including the current fiscal year) are in line with raises being given to the city's union employees under new three-year contracts. Eighty-five full- and part-time employees, ranging from the Assistant Dog Officer to the Human Resources Director, were affected by last week's action by the council.

Mayor Ted Bettencourt told councilors now is not an "easy time" to hand out raises, given the state of the economy, but said he anticipates the remaining union contracts to be settled soon and he's just trying to be fair to all the city's employees.

"We have some people who have given their heart and soul to the city," he said.

The raises for non-union staff amounts to $108,550 for FY2013 and will be largely funded by city reserves, while skating rink and golf course employees will be paid from retained earnings for those operations.

Councilor-at-Large Jim Liacos made a motion to approve the appropriation, which passed with sole opposition by Councilor-at-Large Anne Manning-Martin. Councilors Dave Gamache and Rico Mello were absent from the meeting.

The council's action on Thursday was to approve the spending and agree to advertise the ordinance changes for adoption. At the council's next regular session, those changes will be formally adopted.

The schedule of pay raises does not necessarily indicate what the employees who currently hold the positions will receive, but rather the maximum salary for those jobs.

At the top of the list are the City Solicitor, Director of Community Development, Director of Finance & Administration, Director of Public Services and the Fire Chief who will receive a bump to $104,166 for FY2013, increasing to $106,249 next year and $108,374 in FY2015.

You can find the list of all 85 positions and their respective salary raises in the attached PDF files.