Mayor Proposes Pay Raises for Non-Union City Workers

Eighty-five non-union city employees are up for a raise -- 2 percent per year for three years.

Mayor Ted Bettencourt says that's in line with what union employees will be receiving in their new contracts. He said on Tuesday that five of the city's 14 unions had settled for new deals and he expects the remaining talks would be settled by the end of the month.

Bettencourt has submitted a request to the City Council to adopt an ordinance change that allows for the incremental raises for full-time and part-time employees, which ranges from the Assistant Dog Officer to the Human Resources Director to the Wire Inspector.

The raises, if approved, would be in effect for the current fiscal year through Fiscal 2015. They amount to $108,550 for FY2013 and would be largely funded by city reserves, along skating rink and golf course employees would be paid from retained earnings for those operations.

Bettencourt says he is not asking councilors to approve the request Thursday night, but rather expects them to take it up in committee first.

He also submitted one union contract for review and approval by councilors -- a new agreement for city librarians that will cost $17,000 for the current year.

The details of that contract, which was signed April 30, show a similar 2 percent annual salary increase from 2013-2015.

Other provisions of the contract that appear to remain unchanged include longevity pay, vacation time, partial reimbursement for library-related college courses and a clause that says employees can't be reprimanded in any public portion of the library.

The schedule of pay raises do 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 proposed salary raises in the attached PDF files.