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By TONI COLEMAN tonic@leader.net
Tuesday, February 08, 2000 Page: 3A
WILKES-BARRE – Highly paid administrators will receive 4 percent raises,
elected officials will get no added perks and the dwindling police department
will lose more positions this year.
These are the most noticeable differences between Mayor Tom McGroarty’s
original 2000 operating budget, submitted in October, and the revised version
he pitched last week.
In the original budget, top administrators took home minimal raises of a
few hundred dollars. This time around, in many cases, administrators will see
about a $2,000 pay increase over their 1999 salary. At least 10 administrators
will receive the larger raise.
The salaries of elected officials, including City Council members and
Controller Bernie Mengeringhausen, are frozen at the 1999 rate. Council
members made $11,389 last year, and the controller position paid $31,865.
It is unclear if McGroarty can simply deny council members an annual pay
raise. Members will find out at a special meeting at 5 p.m. tomorrow, when
McGroarty will answer council members’ questions on the $34 million budget.
Council has until Feb. 15 to adopt the new budget.
McGroarty has repeatedly said he wants to save money, but denies the raises
for administrators are a problem for a city he claims is too poor to hire new
police officers. In McGroarty’s budget, the number of police and non-uniformed
employees in the police department drops from 84 in 1999 to 78 in 2000.
It is only fair for city administrators to receive the same percentage
raise – 4 percent – as union employees, McGroarty said.
The highest-paid city employees in 1999 were: City clerk/administrator Bill
Brace, $73,797; McGroarty, $69,621; electrician Dennis Sabestinas, $67,110;
retired Finance Officer Marion Freeman, $65,165, and Public Works
Superintendent Joseph Davis, $59,065.
The mayor shouldn’t overlook the salaries of administrators to save money,
Councilwoman Kathy Kane said. McGroarty wants to save money by privatizing
garbage collection, but that eliminates the lowest-paying jobs, she said.
“Why not start at the top?” she said. The city could have saved money
when it replaced Freeman as finance officer. John Koval, a 4-year employee who
administered payroll and benefits before being appointed finance officer,
earns what Freeman, a 28-year employee, did. The position is budgeted at
$52,847 this year.
“Do you start him off where she left off? I have a problem with that,”
Kane said.
McGroarty said he is starting at the top by cutting Council’s health-care
benefits. Rising health-care costs will bankrupt the city, the mayor said,
which is why he wants City Council to opt for a managed care plan and
eliminate lifetime health benefits for retired elected officials.
Call Coleman at 829-7236.