MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Budget talks in Memphis had Mayor A C Wharton questioning the fairness of raises across the board for Memphis City employees.
His questions came after the City Impasse Committee voted for raises for the Fire and Police Departments.
Some wondered if you do it for a few departments, should you do it for all?
Mayor Wharton said some considered it unfair if some departments get the money they have been asking for and others don’t.
“Now that`s where the detail comes in. What about the other employees who haven`t gotten anything? The raises we offered were based on MPD saying we can do this by saving this, if you`ll let us give it to the employees,” he said.
Departments like the Memphis Animal Shelter wanted raises between 6 to 10%.
Council member Jim Strickland stated in a letter that raise was too large.
He added city leaders couldn’t give them a bigger raise than everyone else.
“It`s going to raise the question of equality and fairness if we give some and others don`t get anything, because some are not even getting the half percent so the fairness question comes up,” Wharton said.
Council member Wanda Halbert who was on the Impasse Committee said these issues would go before the council.
“We will make the decision as a body, and I`m sure that all those issues will be on the table and there is some legitimate merit in how do you give some employees a raise and others no raise,” she said.
Marcus Tucker, the chief negotiator for the Memphis Police Association said while all city employees should get a raise, public safety was a top priority no matter what.
“Everybody doesn`t find themselves in the line of fire, so I think that you have to look at public safety a little bit differently than you would look at the average city employee,” he said.
Aside from a 3% raise, the police department also asked if bilingual officers could make more money.
Halbert said bringing in more bilingual officers was also important.