Goodrich – By a 4-to-1 vote the village council OK’d a 2.5 percent pay increase, retroactive to July 2 for village workers at the Oct. 8 council meeting.
Councilmember Patty Wartella voted against the wage increase.
Nine village employees will receive the raise including three department of public works workers, four office staff, the code enforcement officer and a gardener, say village officials.
Diane Fredericks, a real estate agent for Direct Properties in Goodrich opposed the pay hike.
‘These workers aren’t bad people and maybe they are really hardworking employees, I don’t know. However I don’t agree with a raise at this time. In this economy everybody is taking a cut,? said Fredericks. ‘People aren’t getting raises and we are all tightening our belts. Why aren’t they tightening theirs? I especially don’t think the workers should receive any retroactive pay.?
Concerned the decision to increase wages could end up costing residents more money in taxes, Fredericks said a different decision would have helped residents.
‘If they didn’t give these raises, maybe the village could have lowered our taxes,? she said.
Councilmember David Lucik said he was on the personnel committee with Wartella to do a comparative study about other village salaries.
‘We did our homework to try and figure the best solution to our raises,? said Lucik. ‘Patty (Wartella) wanted to freeze wages this year, I disagreed and took my findings to the council for a vote.?
‘Prices are going up, people are paying more for items and Governor Jennifer Granholm is raising taxes. I felt our employees needed a cost of living raise this year. Besides, we get a lot of services for what people pay for here, ? said Lucik.
Village Street Administrator Pete Morey also voted for the pay raise and said the DPW workers are not paid overtime.
‘Our workers take compensatory time instead (of overtime) so they actually save us money,? he said.
Morey added that DPW Superintendent Ethan Campbell often checks the streets for problems on his own time, and doesn’t ask to be compensated for the work.
Council President Ed York supported the village pay raise.
‘My feeling is everyone in Michigan understands the economy is bad, however we need to take care of our people based on what they do for us. When residents give us opposing views, we do listen to them, however we were voted into office by our residents and are in charge of making the final decision,? said York.
‘We did the research to find out what was happening in other municipalities, and based on that and our budget we felt as though we could afford to give our employees a pay raise this year.?