Stafford eyes pay raise for employees

City employees in Stafford may get a pay increase tonight.
During a special meeting, City Council will consider approving a raise of 3 percent for a majority of its 123 full-time employees, city finance director Karen Austin wrote in an e-mail.
Of those employees, there are four in the police department who are slated to receive 6 percent raises under an adopted salary schedule.
The city also has 27 part-time firefighters who would receive a 3 percent pay increase. All of the salary increases are estimated to cost the city approximately $177,051.
The 3 percent pay increase was proposed by Mayor Leonard Scarcella. This would be the 19th consecutive year that the city has given a pay increase to its full-time employees, Scarcella said.
Those raises have ranged from 2 percent to as high as over 10 percent in high inflation years, but have generally averaged 5 percent, Scarcella said.
With the lackluster economy, 3 percent is the best the city can do this year because of lower sales tax revenue, he said.
I feel that it's fair and deserved, but certainly the economy does not support pay raises in my view in excess of what we're proposing," Scarcella said.