[Southsider2k12]

https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/michiga...ae619eb037.html

Mayor Duane Parry is asking for a 48.7% pay raise in his administration’s 2022 budget proposal.

That would boost his salary from his current $79,409.72 to $118,120.14.

It’s just one of the big increases proposed as the administration seeks to implement the recommendations of a 2019 study on employee compensation.

City Council members are squawking about the proposed raises that would cost an additional $4 million annually.

Among the other big increases would be:

• City Controller Yvonne Hoffmaster, up 33%, to $61,502.22

• Accounts payable/receivable specialist, up 40%, to $31,255.20

• City Administrator Chris Yagelski, up 44.6%, to $51,578.91

• City Engineer Jeffery Wright, up 36.4%, to $67,784.58

• Building Commissioner Sue Downs, up 32.4%, to $44,066.40

Raises of nearly 58% would go to a series of lower-wage workers, many of them seasonal help, to bring them to salaries of up to $15 per hour.

The administration also proposes raises of more than 76% for council members, to $25,671.54, but many of the council members spoke against giving themselves any raise at all.

“I don’t feel like elected officials should be voting on increasing their salaries,” City Council Vice President Angie Deuitch, D-At-Large, said.

City Clerk Gale Neulieb, also an elected official, would get a 7.35% raise, to $70,526.48. Several council members said she deserves it.

Councilman Sean Fitzpatrick, D-4th, introduced the salary ordinances as chairman of the City Council’s Budget Committee just to get the process started, he said. He denied trying to pad salaries in preparation for a mayoral bid.

“I’m not running for mayor. I don’t know where that came from,” Fitzpatrick said. “This is not an endorsement. This is not my approval of this.”

“I think a lot of these increases are unbelievable and outrageous,” Fitzpatrick said. “Some of them are 40 and 50 percent, and just what we’re going off of from the job description, it didn’t seem like there’s much increase in responsibilities.”

Councilwoman Tracie Tillman, D-5th, said she requested job descriptions earlier last year and was provided a 2019 study done under former Mayor Ron Meer.

“I’m not opposed to pay increases as long as they’re justifiable,” she said, but the job descriptions hadn’t been approved when she received them. “The language was just tweaked or revised a little bit.”