Trending
PARKERSBURG -- Mayor Tom Joyce presented the proposed 2019-20 budget to City Council this evening, including a 5 percent reduction of the fire fee and a 3.2 percent pay increase for city employees who did not receive a wage adjustment in the last year.
Council voted to increase the fire fee by 95 percent and double the police fee in late 2017 to provide funding to begin paying more on its police and fire pension liabilities in conjunction with closing the plans to new hires. That action has resulted in some relief for the city, Joyce said, so he proposed reducing the fire fee in the upcoming year.
Two weeks ago, City Council debated whether to include police officers -- who received a $2.53-an-hour raise last fall -- in proposed wage adjustments for city employees. Joyce’s proposal does not include them or other employees whose jobs were reclassified, resulting in higher pay, in the last 12 months. A separate, $1-an-hour raise for most firefighters is also being proposed, which would be higher than the 3.2 percent increase.
Read the full story in Wednesday’s edition of the Parkersburg News and Sentinel.