14 - RAISES FOR RETIREES - Laserfiche WebLink

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Comparisons to other cities are often helpful, but we always have to keep in mind that every municipality operates under different circumstances and a different local economy. While many other cities in Texas have offered raises to retired employees over the last ten years, virtually no cities in Texas have had more than a 100% turnover rate in fire and police staffing during that same time, yet Paris has. We have to make our decisions based on Paris, not anyone else. Finally, although it has nothing to do with your decision - making, since my comments in a 2012 email and the length of my tenure here have been brought up at least three times, I wish to offer some clarifications. The 2012 -13 budget was substantially complete when I came to work in Paris, so I made minimal changes to it. Even so, based on my conversations with Ms. Rose, I hoped we could do something the following year for those employees who retired before the annual raise was discontinued. However, two factors intervened. First I spent most of the summer of 2013 literally fighting for my life, so once again I had little impact on the 2013 -14 budget. Second, TMRS advised us we could not offer the raise only to the retirees who had retired back when such raises were somewhat routine (and therefore expected). That meant we had to include retirees who had should have had no expectation of getting raises after they left employment (most years the people still working here do not get raises either), and that made the cost significantly higher than we hoped. So despite extended illness in 2013 I did still pursue a COLA for certain retirees; it simply did not happen due to the constraints we encountered. STATUS OF ISSUE: Every year, raises for both employees and retirees are considered in our budgeting process. But every year there are many competing needs, and frankly we cannot pay for everything that is requested or needed. Decisions have to be made, rarely between good and bad, or between warranted and unwarranted, but from among a list of legitimate needs. I have attached the major change items we as a staff considered in preparing the 2017 -18 recommended operating budget. I included a number of them, plus raises for current employees, but we cannot afford them all. One thing that was considered and again not funded, was raises for retirees. If the council wishes to insert it into the budget, other recommended items (from both the General and Utility Funds) will need to be reduced or eliminated. To clarify, if the council budgets the $196,000 for retiree raises, retirees will get a single raise in January. The $196,000, however, would have to be budgeted annually to pay the cost of that raise for the lifetime of the retirees. To give future raises, the council would have to budget still more money in future years to pay for those raises and to cover future retirees. Deferring capital does not create savings; it simply delays costs and makes future budgets more difficult. BUDGET: Adding this new cost will necessitate cuts in other areas of the recommended budget. RECOMMENDATION: Direct staff to change or not change the budget, and in which areas, prior to the September 5 public hearing.