The McComb city board adopted a policy revision on employee pay raises with a 3-2 vote Tuesday night, despite opposition from the mayor and two selectmen.
The move follows the board’s 5-0 vote in July to enact a long-awaited pay scale spelling out requirements for raises and promotions.
At issue is funding for the raises, which are to be given based on performance evaluations and attainment of professional certifications.
Mayor Whitney Rawlings argued that 78 cents of every city dollar goes toward payroll, and that is too much.
“To put us in the position where we could add more ... I just don’t think that is what we want to do,” he said.
Selectmen Ted Tullos and Tommy McKenzie opposed re-wording the Professional Career Development Incentive policy, citing possible financial constraints a guaranteed promise of boosting pay could bring.
Selectmen Tammy Witherspoon, Andranette Jordan and Michael Cameron voted for the amendment, saying employees deserve to be rewarded for professional development.
Selectman Melvin Joe Johnson was in the hospital because of an unspecified illness, city officials said.
Tullos began the discussion with a hypothetical story about a city that had to break a promise of giving raises after revenue fell.
“Are you willing — or is any other board willing — to tell an employee, ‘Sorry we don’t have the funds?’ ” he said. “Now, it seems like you are adding something that could really cause a problem if the money isn’t there.”
Cameron and City Administrator Quordiniah Lockley countered that employees deserve to be rewarded for certifications they earn outside of what is required for their job.
“We are raising everybody to try and get them where they need to be because right now they aren’t where they need to be,” Cameron said. “The only way to drop that number without getting people to the point where they need to be is to drop people.”
Lockley agreed that employees should be rewarded and said the policy awarding them for certification has been in place for years.
“We are just fine-tuning it,” he said.
Lockley said the policy revision specifies raises will be given in 3 percent increments.
He also pointed out that in the past, the city administrator made the final decision to award a pay raise.
Rawlings questioned that notion and asked Lockley to bring the old policy before the board for review.
After reviewing the old policy, Witherspoon pointed out it states that the decision to grant raises must come before the board.
“I can tell you that it didn’t get before the board,” Lockley said of past pay raises.
Rawlings noted that in 2011, the city gave no pay raises because department heads made no recommendations, possibly fearing that they would automatically be rejected.
He questioned if the new policy would result in more requests for pay raises.
“You think a document is going to fix it?” he asked.
Lockley said employees will have to understand that under the change, the board would have to approve pay raises, and that would only happen if funds for them are available.
“It is not a done deal until the board approves it,” Lockley said. “That is what they have to understand. If we don’t have the revenue, guess what? This board votes it down and says, ‘Not at this time.’ ”
