City of Raleigh approves 2% cost-of-living adjustment for full-time employees

The adjustments become effective on Saturday and impacted employees will see the pay increases reflected in their May 13 paychecks.

“We are struggling with trying to maintain operations at a quality and quantity that people not only demand, but expect from us as local government providers,” City Manager Marchell Adams-David said. “In saying that, all of our departments, with the exception of a couple, are less than fully staffed.

“We are struggling to maintain Solid Waste Services. We are also being burdened by the private sector competition for IT.”

City of Raleigh Budget and Management Services Director Mary Vigue said the 2% cost-of-living adjustment costs the city about $6.4 million each year.

"We figured out a way to try to find the money to be able to do the 2%, so that is not a budgeted amount of money," Adams-David said. "That is savings that we have found within the current existing adopted budget."

Vigue said the city was using "salary savings" to fund the 2% increase approved on Tuesday.

"Any change in that, we would need to go back and evaluate what that impact would be, and what we would need to do to hold the line maybe on other items for the rest of the year because we, as the city, are also experiencing some of those same increases associated with fuel, vehicle maintenance and other things," Vigue said.

District B councilmember David Cox said he would like to see the city provide even higher cost-of-living adjustments for all employees beyond the 2% increase, and not just for firefighters and police officers.

"I am concerned that what we're doing isn't sufficient, and I wanted to be able to support the city manager and the fire chief and also the police, and ensure we're meeting our goals for public safety," Cox said.

Cox asked if there was any opportunity to provide more than a 2% raise given recent inflation.

“I’m very concerned about the deficiencies we have and the openings that we have in the department,” Cox said.

"We are looking at options for next year's budget," Vigue said. "I will tell you, anything you do with employee salaries, you need an ongoing revenue source, and property taxes [are] potentially on the table."

Vigue said city staff would present the fiscal year 2022-23 budget to commissioners until May.

Adams-David said the city is already planning a 2-cent property tax increase to cover what's already planned for the upcoming budget.

"If we were to do anything different, we would have to look at additional revenue sources to offset that or take something out," Adams-David said.

During Tuesday's virtual city council meeting, Raleigh Fire Chief Herbert Griffin said his department had 55 vacancies. It includes 24 firefighters, 24 lieutenants, six captains and one division chief. Griffin said the department has three to four retirements pending as of May 1.

The fire department has the capacity to hire 60 cadets the upcoming academy class, Griffin said.

“We allowed [Griffin] to over-hire so that he would not get into position where they would have a full academy through graduation,” Marchell said. “I wish that was the case in [the police department]. [That’s] a totally different story.”

On Tuesday afternoon, first responders protested outside the municipal building at 228 West Hargett St. in downtown Raleigh.

Although Raleigh's living hourly wage is $17.33, a Raleigh firefighter starts their career at $13.42 per hour. The city's new pay plan only increases firefighters' pay to $15.06.

Firefighters want the City of Raleigh to raise the starting pay $18.20 per hour and adjust the entire pay scale accordingly. Their proposed rate is $2.30 higher than what the city approved on Tuesday.

At-large councilmember Jonathan Melton said Tuesday's approval of a 2% pay increase was an "interim measure" to combat inflation costs.

"I definitely think we need to continue to have discussions about police and fire pay, about Solid Waste Services, about pay for all of our employees," Melton said before Tuesday's vote. "But in the interim, we need to approve this 2% so this can go on their next paycheck while we still work through next year's budget cycle."

"We do predict that this summer there may be communities that won't have fire protection for a day or a couple of days due to not having staffing," Davis said. "That worries us. That sickens us."

The Raleigh City Council is looking to fill the police department's 168 vacancies, which is about 20% of the total force, by upping minimum pay in every category, with the biggest jump for new officers.

Here is a look at the salaries of the Raleigh Police Department positions after Tuesday's approval:

Even after Tuesday's 2% increase, WRAL Investigates found the Raleigh Police Department's starting pay for police officers was the lowest among the police departments in Wake County:

WRAL News spoke with Raleigh senior officer Derrick Wells about the pay increases. For seven years, Wells has worked for the Raleigh Police Department.

"I just feel so drained," Wells said. "I just feel numb right now. I am so tired and exhausted because all we are doing is going call to call with almost no downtime."

Wells said there have been reports of people waiting for police to arrive at minor car crashes for two-plus hours. He said districts that are normally staffed with 10-12 officers now have three or four.

"Vacancies are a huge issue," Wells said. "I am going into shifts every night and I am just been ran ragged."

Wells said it would be nice to receive a pay increase, but he wants to see the raises for another reason.

"Honestly, I want the pay to increase because I want more officers to come here," he said.