East Point's mayor has strongly criticized what she said was a rush to award $172,000 in pay raises to city employees, and in turn drawn a rebuke from a city councilman for her actions.
Mayor Earnestine Pittman said performance pay raises, which she learned about in an April 18 executive session, shouldn't have been granted until a six-month audit was conducted, as stipulated by an amendment in last year's budget approval.
Pittman blamed City Manager Crandall Jones for implementing the raises and going against council wishes. She said now is not the time for pay raises.
“The council should stop the madness and hold the city manager accountable,” she said.
However, City Councilman Lance Rhodes said the big problem was in the mayor publicly airing her discontent.
“Any criticism of Mr. Jones should take place in executive session,” Rhodes said.
Rhodes also said the pay raises, which represented half the amount budgeted and were given to 381 of the city’s 501 employees, had to be implemented because of a city ordinance. He alluded to a section of the East Point city code that states raises will be granted after the city has established a salary system.
“The only way not to implement the raises was not funding the raise amount in the budget, or removing the pay-for-performance program,” he said.
The amendment passed by the council was not enforceable because it violated the ordinance, Rhodes said. He supported the amendment at the time, though he thought there was a problem with it.
“Staff not only followed our current ordinance, but they did so at about one-half of the budget amount," Rhodes said. "If anything, staff should be commended for a job well done in cutting cost.”
Pittman said a majority of the council skipped a Monday night meeting, unaware that raises would be implemented by Jones in executive session.
“They didn’t have all their ducks in a row about Jones, so they just didn’t show,” the mayor said.
Efforts to contact Jones were unsuccessful. Pittman, however, released an e-mail that the city manager sent outlining his actions.
In it, Jones said it was not his intent to defy the council by implementing the raises without the six-month audit. Jones said he did not recall the amendment until April 19, and he apologized for any error or misunderstanding on his part. Jones added that he has talked to the auditors and anticipates having the six-month review conducted during the first week of May.
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