Due to a slight oversight, Athens City Council will be conducting another second reading of an ordinance that would establish authority when it comes to pay raises.
Due to a slight oversight, Athens City Council members will be conducting another second reading of the ordinance that would establish council’s authority when it comes to non-union pay raises on Monday night.
The ordinance came to council after an ongoing dispute between City Auditor Kathy Hecht and Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl, which cut off communications between offices and left Hecht’s seat at council meetings empty.
Councilman Jeff Risner, D-2nd Ward, said the new legislation would allow certain elected officials to dole out pay raises, so long as they coincided with pay bands set by council.
During last week’s meeting, Risner said he left out a sentence in the ordinance, and would just have to reword it at tomorrow’s council meeting before conducting another second reading.
The issue leading to the ordinance stemmed from the 2-to-4 percent pay raises doled out by Hecht to auditor’s office non-union employees without the permission of city council.
Wiehl brought the raises to the attention of city council — which had already given out a 1 percent pay raise to non-union city employees — and then-City Law Director Pat Lang.
Though council normally would be handing out raises, Lang said in an email to Wiehl that Hecht was well within her bounds, so long as she stuck to the pay bands set forward by council.
In mid-March, council members passed an ordinance giving other employees an additional 1 percent pay raise to even out the disparity.
A 1 percent pay raise for nonunion employees would cost the city an additional $47,000 annually, Wiehl said in a previous Post report.
The ordinance received two dissenting votes, something that is relatively unusual for city council.
If all goes according to plan, the legislation could be adopted within the next three weeks.
@emilybohatch
eb346012@ohio.edu
