LULA — The amount of proposed employee raises for the upcoming year divided the Lula City Council Monday night.
The Fiscal Year 2019 proposed budget included 10-percent raises for all employees, something that prompted Councilmen Vince Evans and Garnett Smith to vote against the budget.
“I did not agree with the raise package that the council suggested, and I don’t think that the committee that came up with it was 100 percent in approval of it either,” Evans said after the meeting.
Smith echoed Evans’ concerns.
“I just thought a 10-percent raise was entirely too high,” Smith said.
Instead, Smith favored an equal hourly increase for all city employees.
“I thought we should have gone for $1 an hour straight across the board. I thought that would benefit the small man, his groceries and all, the same as the high man, so I thought that was a fair raise.”
The approved general fund balanced budget of $1,084,696 includes an increase in revenue of roughly $78,000, City Manager Dennis Bergin told the council.
Evans also voted against the $829,947 water and sewer budget for FY19, which passed 4-1 Monday night.
“I think we have a very oversimplified budget for a $2-million budget,” Evans said. “I think there’s a lot of detail missing that we could improve on that. I’ve had trouble getting a hard copy of the budget every month. I think we should be given a hard copy of the budget so we could review it before we get here.”
Because Lula gets a portion of Hall County Local Option Sales Tax, the city council has opted for years to set the millage rate at 0, meaning Lula doesn’t collect city taxes from its residents.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2018/6/683092/lula-city-council-votes-3-2-to-approve-fy19-budget