STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAU) -- The battle over giving twelve Stevens Point department heads a pay raise is over. The City Council approved the pay adjustments, which some alderpersons fought because of the tight budget and others fought because it was outside of the guidelines for the recently-implemented pay study. Others supported the raises to keep department heads from leaving the city.
Mayor Andrew Halverson says it will cost the city, but he is certain these department leaders will be worth the investment. “On an annualized basis, the impact for 2014 is roughly $6,000 across all twelve of those individuals, so again, in the grand scheme of a $25-million dollar budget, to appropriately position our key leaders I think is a very small price to pay given the caliber and the effort we get back from them.”
Alderpersons Roger Trzebiatowski and Jeremy Slowinski were excused, and Alderperson Joanne Suomi passed away September 2nd. The vote was 4-4, with Halverson casting the tie breaker on a subject that has been discussed for several months. “I cast the breaking vote to approve the memo and my suggestions. Specifically, we’ll at least move in the right direction several of the key leaders within the city to be much closer to their counterparts in comparable cities, not only in central Wisconsin but really, across the state.”
Comptroller-Treasurer Corey Laddick advised the council they are projecting a 2015 deficit of 371-thousand dollars with these pay adjustments. The Mayor says they’ve dealt with much bigger budget issues, and the city can’t afford to lose more key department leaders. “We have to be highlighting in the city of Stevens Point the retention and the recruitment of the very best. With all due respect to our friends in Wausau, they took one away from us, and some of these moves will ensure at least from a salary perspective, we don’t face a competitive disadvantage in central Wisconsin, or quite frankly, across the state again. That’s why I felt so greatly about these adjustments.” He adds, “When I look at a few hundred thousand dollars, which can very easily be found by leveraging the very skill sets that we have compensated appropriately here today with these department heads, when you look at a 300-thousand dollar shortfall across a 25-million dollar budget, there are synergies that can be built and small changes that can be made that will not affect the service delivery that our citizens have come to expect of us.”
The council approved these raises, but voted to hold off on adding two entry-level street department workers until budget time.
(Listen to our interview with Mayor Andrew Halverson on our website, here.)