UPDATE: Columbia City Council approves pay raises in new city budget

UPDATE: The city council approved its 2019 budget, featuring a new $15 per hour minimum wage for city workers.

The city council voted just after 9 p.m. on the budget, which will go into effect on Oct. 1. The budget comes with several different pay raise plans.

Trash rates will go up by 48 cents a month for a residential unit in order to afford an additional $2 an hour raise for trash collectors.

The council rejected a proposal to raise the fees for paratransit fees by $1.

Electric line workers did not see a specific pay raise, even after the Water & Light Advisory Board recommended a 15 percent raise for journeyman line workers. City Manager Mike Matthes said the council could revisit the issue after further study of the pay situation. Sixth Ward Councilwoman Betsy Peters said she wanted to continue the conversation by next month.

Advisory board member Jay Hasheider said the city should find a way to make the 15 percent raises work. Columbia Water & Light has will soon lose another journeyman line worker to another utility company and a foreman to retirement, Hasheider said.

The shortage has led the utility to stop hiring apprentices, a four-year field training program that allows workers the chance to be promoted to journeyman line worker. Electric distribution manager Fred Eaton told ABC 17 News that the city currently does not have enough journeyman line workers to supervise and teach apprentices.

Hasheider told the council that this program is critical for the utility to stay well staffed.

“In my view, it’s like you’re losing the prime on the pump,” Hasheider said. “If you can’t get apprentices, we’re really cutting ourselves short.”

ORIGINAL: City departments will spend more than $3 million next year to afford raises for city employees.

The Columbia City Council will consider approving these changes at its Monday night meeting. The changes include a 45-cent per hour raise for all city employees, a new $15 per hour minimum wage and specific raises for equipment operators and trash collectors.

Employee groups brought their concerns over pay and working conditions to the city council over the course of several months this year. Many said the lack of significant raises over the last several years had created low morale and led to many departments working with short staff because of workers leaving.

Under the latest proposal, trash collectors would receive a $2 per hour raise, followed by a raise to bring more than 200 city workers to $15 per hour. Equipment operators would then be reclassified, giving them a raise based on the city’s new pay scale. Next, city employees with more than five years of experience and no significant conduct violations would move closer to the middle of their job’s pay scale. Finally, all city workers would get a 45 cent per hour raise.

It would cost $3,139,247 to pay for all of this, according to the city’s finance department. The general fund would bear the largest cost at nearly $2 million, followed by $557,306 from the Solid Waste division, which covers trash collection.

The proposed raises do not include a specific increase for electric line workers. Former members have warned the city council about staff shortages there, which could cause delays in getting power restored and less training for younger employees.