Raises during Reed’s tenure:
- In 2010, employees earning less than $75,000 received a one-time bonus of $450. Sworn police and fire received a 3 percent increase.
- In 2011, police and fire personnel received a full step pay increase of 3.5 percent.
- In 2012, the Atlanta City Council approved increasing the salary of 488 employees who earned less than 80 percent of the midpoint of their pay range.
- In 2013, classified employees and corrections employees received a 3 percent pay raise. Police and fire employees, as well as those earning $60,000 or less, received a 1 percent bump. Those employees later received another .5 percent increase.
- Now, full-time employees in pay grades 18 and under, who earn about $61,000 or less, will receive a 3.5 percent increase. The raises exclude some workers, including people in higher pay grades and sworn officers.
Source: City of Atlanta
Mayor Kasim Reed and the Atlanta City Council awarded pay raises to more than a third of its employees this week, with pledges to discuss salary bumps for others soon.
But one group likely to be left out of the mix? The city’s public safety workers.
Reed has for two years refused to award raises to police officers and firefighters while the city remains embroiled in a legal challenge to his 2011 pension reform.
The class-action lawsuit, which now is in the hands of the Georgia Supreme Court, is on behalf of all of the city’s employees. Several city workers, including a fire union leader, are listed as principles on the lawsuit. At issue is whether the city acted lawfully when it increased employee contributions without giving workers an added benefit, something Reed has said was critical to securing the city’s financial future.
Reed defended the decision to withhold raises to public safety workers on Tuesday and blasted union leaders for breaking faith with the city on the pension reform they originally supported.
Reed said he’s been unfairly portrayed as “hard-hearted” on the pay raise issue, noting he’s given six increases to employees while in office and supports equal pay measures. For example, Reed awarded pay raises to police officers and firefighters in his first year at City Hall.
"What these folks want to do is unravel the pension reform that kept us from becoming Detroit or Chicago," Reed said. "It's ignorant. It's wrong-minded. And anytime those folks want to debate me on whether we're doing the right thing or not, I'm happy to have that conversation."
Reed then lambasted the workers for appealing a Fulton County Superior Court judge’s 2014 ruling that Atlanta was within its legal right to alter pension contributions. Reed said he’s not concerned that the city will lose the case, but added that he’s willing to have a discussion about raises if employees drop the lawsuit.
A ruling in favor of the workers could mean Atlanta will have to pay $35 million to $50 million in restitution, he said.
“If they’re planning to get a pay raise while they’re suing me, they’re going to have to wait for somebody else to have my job,” he vowed.
Ken Allen, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 623, questioned why the mayor is targeting public safety when the lawsuit was brought by a swath of employees. What’s more, some of the workers named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are poised to benefit from the recent pay increases.
“The mayor is either ill-informed or is doing a political spin because the public is upset that they’d give one group of employees a pay raise and not involve public safety,” he said.
Allen said the mayor’s decision worsens already tense relations with the police force and penalizes new officers. He believes the move could result in more officers leaving APD’s ranks.
“This sends such a message about an attrition problem and to these officers that they don’t have anything. Their hopes are continually going down the river,” he said. “It appears very much that the groups that have been outspoken about employees having the legal right to question this in court are being singled out.”
Some employee union leaders, even those who will receive the 3.5 percent increase pledged to workers earning $61,000 or less, say the so-called cost of living raise is unfair in other ways, as well.
Gina Pagnotta-Murphy, president of the Professional Association of City Employees of Atlanta, said all employees — not just those in certain pay grades — should receive increases. Pagnotta-Murphy told the city council to keep the raise she is expected to receive.
“It’s not fair when all of the other employees are not able to get a raise,” she said. “It’s blood money. It’s political money.”
At Monday’s meeting, public safety top brass praised Reed’s support of their departments, but stopped short of calling for raises for their forces.
Atlanta Police Chief George Turner, newly-appointed Fire Chief Joel Baker and Corrections Chief Patrick Labat each stood before the city council and extolled what Reed has done to advance their departments with technology and higher staffing. The mayor, for example, has long touted being the first city leader to obtain a force of 2,000 police officers. He’s also spent millions upgrading the forces’ equipment.
“I’m confident that at the right time and right situation, the salary piece (for sworn officers) will be taken care of by this body and this administration,” Turner told the council.
The council passed the pay raise measure, sponsored by Councilman C.T. Martin, by a 11 to 1 vote on Monday. Councilwoman Natalyn Archibong voted against the legislation, saying she believes the city should first develop a comprehensive salary increase proposal for all workers.
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