City Council approves measures to examine minimum wage

After pleas from city workers for the administration to reward them for their hard work Tuesday night, the Monroe City Council approved two items aimed at starting a conversation on an increase in the minimum wage for city employees.

The two items are a resolution stating the City Council supports an increase in the minimum wage to $10 an hour and the approval of a study that will compare pay scales and job descriptions of Monroe to similarly situated cities.

"When that storm came through here, the employees worked 14 straight days in the Garden District," city worker Robert Johnson said. "They gave us more love than some of the administrators. I hope that the executive group and the legislative and any other party that don't feel like we should be getting this increase, search your heart and look to the sky, because there is a god that's watching us."

The resolution, which was introduced by City Council Chairman Ray Armstrong, was approved unanimously, but not without heated debate.

"The fact that we don't have employees that make a living wage has been a problem for many years," Armstrong said. "The mayor's budget is due to the council on Feb. 1. What I would like to do in support of this minimum wage increase is to make sure the administration looks at where this money comes from. I believe there is money there to do this."

Mayor Jamie Mayo said he supports an increase of the minimum wage, but it can't be implemented all at once.

"When it causes us to have an additional expense of $1.5 million dollars and we have to do what I had to do in my third year here, which was lay off 100 workers, you all are not going to be very happy," he said. "We have not threatened to lay off anybody. I'm not going to do that.

"We're doing this study to make sure that we have all of our i's dotted and our t's crossed."

Councilwoman Betty Blakes challenged Mayo's comments.

"I'd just like to say, we have a surplus of $14 million," she said.

"So what does that mean?" Mayo responded.

"If we've got a surplus, we should be able to give these people a raise," Blakes said, receiving applause from the crowd.

"Just like that?" Mayo said, before the issue was moved on by Armstrong.

Councilwoman Gretchen Ezernack said she thinks this issue needs to be handled with a watchful eye.

"One of the things we have to take into consideration … is we are waiting to see what the results of that study will show and what the budget will recommend to us," she said. "And also not have to reduce any personnel because of an increase of the budget because of this. I think we need to realize that we have to go through that step as well."

The study, which is focusing on Alexandia and others, was approved with a 4-0-1 vote will cost $4,680 and is expected to take four to six weeks to complete. Blakes abstained from the vote.

Other items on the council's agenda included approving a grant fund for a hiking trail, approving a grant fund to build a new boat dock in Forsythe Park and approval of improvements at Monroe Regional Airport.

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