By Billy Wolfe
The Charleston Daily Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Many state and local government employees won’t be getting pay raises this year because of tough economic times, but Charleston police and firefighters are an exception.
In the 2010-11 municipal budget, $527,243 has been set aside for so-called “longevity” pay hikes for 183 police officers and 198 members of the fire department. That would amount to $1,502 per person if given out across the board regardless of years of experience.
However, the longer a worker has held a job, the bigger the increase will be.
City Finance Director Joe Estep said police and firefighters will get an additional $138 a year for every year of service. Someone with 10 years of experience will get an additional $1,380 a year. Those with 20 years are in line for a $2,760 pay raise.
City Manager David Molgaard said there are 86 police officers and 106 firefighters with 10 or more years of experience.
Molgaard said there’s no state law or city ordinance that requires the city to grant longevity raises to the emergency services personnel. However, they are told when they are hired that they will get the extra money each year, he said.
Molgaard said he doesn’t know when the practice started, but it was before anyone now working on his staff was on the job.
“It’s been that way for who knows how long,” he said. “It probably harkens back to the advent of the classified service.”
He said the raises are automatically built into the budget each year as a separate item. Regular city employees do not receive longevity pay, and no other pay increases are in the 2010-11 budget.
The new budget sets aside $287,040 in longevity pay for police officers and $285,209 for the fire department members, Molgaard said.
The overall impact on the $80.4 million budget is quite small, he said. The longevity increases make up 0.7 percent of that sum.
Robert Reishman, chairman of city council’s finance committee, said he believes the increases are fair because of the specific nature of police and firefighters’ jobs.
“It’s really not something you can change after the fact when they have been promised the raises,” he said.
The budget contains $123,000 in new spending. It is up 0.15 percent over the current 2009-10 budget.
Charleston has instituted a temporary hiring freeze in the police and fire departments. Four fire lieutenant positions will be converted to lower-paid firefighter positions.
Other positions will remain unfilled as employees retire or leave the force, but no layoffs are expected in the next year, Mayor Danny Jones has said.
Other city workers will not receive raises in the next fiscal year. The Kanawha County Commission has decided likewise for county employees.
State employees and teachers will receive no general wage hikes this year.
However, teachers will receive the increases built into state law for them. Most receive a raise for each year of experience, and some also get raises for accumulating specified levels of post-graduate credits.
Copyright 2010 Charleston Newspapers