| OCR Text |
Show l&JOa IP(o)lA(o0L?S !Dm)o)QY7 By GARY R. BLODGETT BOUNTIFUL Three salary proposals, plus a request that the city pick up all costs of health and accident ; premiums, were presented to the Bountiful City Council Wednesday night. RICHARD JUDD, representing the City Employees' Association, asked the council to consider one of three salary proposals for next fiscal year's budget. The proposals were: A SIX percent "cost of living" increase plus $20 per month "across the board" salary raise for all employees. An increase of 8.8 percent for all salaried employees, based on salaries from last July 1 and projected to next June 30, or A 18 "cost of living"-increase based on salaries from Jan. 1, 1977 to Jan. L 1978. In addition, the employees' association asked the council to pick up all health and accident premiums that are presently paid by the employees which cover dependents. depen-dents. THE DEPENDENTS' premiums are $19.06 every two weeks, or a cost to the city of about $60,000 per year. City Manager Grant P. Petersen said about 175 full-time full-time city employees would be affected by the proposals. MR. JUDD explained that some employees are not in-, 51 volved in the city's medical insurance program while some employees are single and would not be affected by the dependents' premiums which are being considered in this proposal. He added that the majority vote of the employees was to seek a six percent "cost of living" increase and a $20 per month "across the board" raise. 'THIS WOULD benefit more employees, expecially those in the lower income brackets," said Mr. Judd. "With this proposal, all employees would realize more .Jake home pay." Mr. Judd then told the council that after last year's "cost of living" increase, the average take-home pay was only 91 cents more than before the raise. 'THATS WHY we are asking for a cost of living in-cease in-cease to cover the cost of inflation plus a $20 across the board salary hike so that we can realize some sort of increase in our salaries," he explained. Overall, the proposals salary increase plus premium costs would amount to about a ten percent increase in salary and benefits, according to Mayor Elmer W. Barlow. HE SAID that based on annual salary figures, it would cost the city about $250,000 to match the proposals being offered. "This would necessitate an increase in the mill levy of about two mills," the mayor said. HOWEVER, CITY Manager Grant P. Petersen noted that growth increase in the city would provide an estimated es-timated $60,000 to $75,000, but the remainder would have to come from other sources. Mayor Barlow said the council would study all the proposals and reach a decision before next year's budget is prepared. CITY PERSONNEL director, Jack Mcintosh, said he has not seen a proposal such as the six percent plus $20, but that after studying the proposals, "I can't see anything wrong with the concept, at least as a one-shot offer. Councilmen Paul Allen and Jay Bingham expressed concern about the city paying all medical premiums. "MOST COMPANIES don't pay all of the medical premiums and I question whether we should," said Councilman Allen. "But if the city did pay all premiums, I think this would be the way for the employees to go because they would not have to pay taxes." Councilman Bingham added: "I think employees should participate in paying for medical insurance. It's a good principle to follow for security and retirement. They shouldn't rely on the city paying for all their dependent medical coverage." MR. JUDD noted that Bountiful is an efficiently operated city, one of the best in the state. He said there is one employee per 219 residents, which is much lower ratio than most cities this size. "BESIDES, WITH our own power plant we have 40 employees working there that would not be included in figures from cities where they have no power plant," he said. Compared to Salt Lake City, which has one employee per 87 residents, Bountiful is 2 times as efficient, he noted. |
