The Greenwood City Council on Monday approved the majority of the city’s spending plan for next year, with the exception of raises for council members, which failed in a split vote.
The council unanimously approved raises for the city’s appointed officers and employees, as well as city utilities. However, the unanimous votes stopped there.
The city council voted 6-2 to approve the salaries of the city judge, clerk and mayor, as well as the city’s tax rates and department appropriations. Council members Brad Pendleton and Michael Williams voted no.
When it came time to consider raises for themselves, council members voted 4-4 vote with one member absent. Pendleton, Williams, Ron Bates and David Hopper voted no.
Council member salaries are paid out of the city’s general fund. Under the proposed ordinance, eight council members would make $502.23, and the council president would make $548.38 every two weeks starting in January 2022, according to city documents.
Currently, council members make $494.80, and the council president makes $540.96 every two weeks, city documents show. For 2022, their bi-weekly pay would increase by 1.5%, while the president’s would increase by 1.4%.
Bates voted against the ordinance due to his long-standing belief that it is inappropriate for elected officials to vote for their own raises. It would only be appropriate if it was prior to an election, and constituents had a referendum on the council members’ effectiveness, he said.
“It looks like, from a constituent point of view, that … a counselor (is) voting for their own raise,” Bates said.
Pendleton voted against it because he did not think the budget appropriately addressed public safety.
“It was inappropriate for an elected official to see a pay increase while we don’t invest in public safety,” he said.
Since the beginning of the budget process, Pendleton has voiced his concerns about staffing for the fire and police departments. Next year, the city will add three full-time firefighters and three full-time police officers — numbers he said during a September council meeting were not enough.
The largest chunk of Greenwood’s budget would go toward public safety, and with the three additional positions for both departments, the police department would have 82 full-time officers and staff, and the fire department would have 67 full-time firefighters and staff.
Next year’s budget is a little more than $45.2 million, the bulk of which — $42.7 million — is the city’s operating budget. The other $2.5 million is for capital projects, which would be paid by the city’s cash on hand.
Council raises will come before the council again at its next meeting Nov. 2.
