Council members approved an ordinance designed to adjust wages for non-union employees to match raises for union workers previously negotiated. The city will give a 2.5 percent raise for non-union employees, who received a 2 percent raise in 2018.
“This particular ordinance will implement a 2.5 percent non-union wage increase for our full-time employees as well as for our regular part-time employees,” City Manager Mark Schwieterman said. “This ordinance is essentially the personnel ordinance for the calendar year 2019. It will be effective the first pay period in 2019.”
The raises will cost the city approximately $94,000 for non-union employees, according to Schwieterman. Union raises would cost about $250,000 total, using figures provided by Schwieterman.
According the city’s human resources department, the city employs about 400 regular full-time employees, 100 regular part-time employees, 30 part-time firefighters and more than 500 seasonal employees.
With approval of the pay ordinance, the city will increase the number of police officers to supply the Kettering school district with resource officers.
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“This coincides with increasing our budget for patrol officers from 63 to 65 as we anticipate entering into an agreement with the Kettering school district for school resource officers for the school year beginning in August of 2019,” Schwieterman said. “The schools will be reimbursing the city for those employees at 70 percent of the calendar year.”
The city will also add five firefighter positions and one fire captain position.
In the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department, the city has added a recreation superintendent’s position, which was removed more than a decade ago. It will also add a full-time ice facility coordinator and part-time business technician position.
The superintendent’s position is expected to have a pay range of $77,770 to $108,014, depending on experience and qualifications.
“Numerous title changes have also been made throughout the Parks and Rec organizational chart to bring those titles in and be more consistent with the rest of the city’s titles for positions,” Schwieterman said.
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Council also received an overall summary of the city’s budget for 2019.
“The overall summary of the budget is that our general fund operating revenues cover our operating expenditures,” Schwieterman said. “Which means we do have a budgeted 2019 operating margin of approximately $1.6 million.”
City officials say that income tax revenue represents a majority of the general fund revenue and budgeted $50.5 million for 2019.
“Our property tax revenue is about 11 percent of general fund revenue, and we are projecting an 8 percent increase in 2018,” Schwieterman said. “This comes from Montgomery County assessing or re-evaluating properties every 3 years.”
The county’s 2017 assessment showed an increase of approximately 8 percent in property values. The projections for growth in property tax revenue in 2019 is flat compared to 2018, according to Schwieterman.
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