Girard council tables raises
Council will address the issue again in two weeks.
GIRARD — The city’s police and fire chiefs won’t know for another couple of weeks if they will be getting pay raises anytime soon.
Council was set to give the required third reading and vote on legislation that would increase the wages of Police Chief Frank Bigowsky and Fire Chief Kenneth Bornemiss, but last-minute changes offered by some members of council and rejected by other members led to the matter’s being tabled until June 9.
Councilmen Thomas Grumley, Brian Kren and Joe Shelby voted against postponing a vote on the legislation.
Bigowsky is paid $47,350 annually plus $1,716 in longevity pay. Bornemiss is paid $49,125 annually plus $2,756 for a paramedic certification and an additional $884 in longevity pay.
The proposal before council would take both men’s pay to $55,016.
Mayor James Melfi, who did not make Tuesday’s meeting, has said he planned to veto any raises until job performance evaluations were completed.
Councilman Thomas Seidler suggested council change the proposed ordinance to read that a pay raise of up to 6 percent be offered to each chief after an evaluation is conducted in the next 15 days, and annual raises of up to 6 percent be offered after yearly evaluations for each position. City administration would conduct the evaluations and make a suggestion to council for the pay raises.
Several members of council said the issue has been debated by council long enough and no more changes are needed before the two department heads are offered raises.
“Why this has to be changed at the 11th hour is frustrating to me,” said Grumley. “This is just another delay to these two gentlemen. I was under the impression that the purpose was to get these two gentlemen above the rate of a captain and go from there.”
Shelby said he believed the raises would be granted and evaluations would begin in the coming years.
Councilman Frank Migliozzi said council has yet to agree on the matter and he does not see any agreement on the issue in the future. “There are many issues here, and I just don’t see us coming up with the right piece of legislation on this,” he said.
The tabled raises come amid a highly publicized dispute between the mayor and police chief — one the police chief requested a hearing with the civil service commission to address.
Bigowsky accused the mayor of being threatening and unprofessional.
The civil service commission, several hours before council’s decision to table the raises, decided upon advice from Law Director Mark Standohar that it had no jurisdiction to hold such a hearing. Bigowsky will be forwarded a letter from the commission with the law director’s opinion.
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