Wage increase proposed for city staff in Grand Forks, ND

Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown’s administration is proposing a 1.72 percent wage increase for city staff in 2011.

That’s $308,000 stretched over 288 employees in the General Fund, which pays for most core city services, such as police, fire and street departments and various administrative services.

The fund uses mostly property taxes.

City Administrator Rick Duquette said about $300,000 would come out of money the city would’ve otherwise set aside for replacing worn equipment and repairing its buildings. The rest would dip into reserves set aside in previous years for the same purpose, he said.

Several City Council members who heard the proposal at their work session agreed the wage hike is necessary to keep up with wages paid in other comparable cities in the region and around the country.

Some said they were not happy about where the money would come from, however.

Council member Curt Kreun, who chairs the safety committee, said the city needs to protect its property just as much as its staff. He’ll agree to it just this one time, he said.

Council member Doug Christensen, who chairs the finance committee, said he doesn’t want taxpayers to get the impression the city would compromise safety. “If the day comes when we need a fire engine, we’ll have reserves to get it done.”

The wage discussion doesn’t include employees whose departments fall under the Enterprise Fund, which includes utilities and economic development functions.

Years ago, the council used to negotiate wage increases with employee unions every year, Council President Hal Gershman said. City leaders in the early part of the decade decided to peg wages to prevailing rates on the labor market and found that city employees were “significantly” behind, he said.

Since then, the city has commissioned a wage survey each year to determine wage increases.

Gershman cautioned colleagues against arbitrarily picking rates below what the survey recommends just to have a lower number. Doing that year after year will cause wages to fall farther and farther behind, he said.

Previously, city leaders had discussed raising utility fees to help make up for a $1 million budget deficit, a practice that would mean fees would be somewhat disconnected from the cost of water and sewage treatment because they’d also be used to pay for police, fire and other core services.

Monday, council members continued to debate the wisdom of that change.

Raising fees 2 percent would put another $505,000 in city coffers.

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