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New Philadelphia considering raises, but much lower than last year

| October 30, 2024

NEW PHILADELPHIA (October 30, 2024) – City Council is considering raises for non-union city employees much lower than the one approved for 2024.

Last year, the administration proposed a three-year contract with annual seven percent raises. Some Council members didn’t want to commit to raises that high for three years, so they approved the raise for just this year.

Council now has three new at-large members, including salary committee chair Kris Kreinbihl. He outlined a three-year proposal for lower raises: 3 percent in year one, 2 percent in year two, and 1 percent in year three.

Last year, administrators argued city employees were underpaid and needed big raises to catch up with comparable cities. Kreinbihl was not on Council as the time. He weighed in at Monday’s salary committee meeting.

“I don’t believe everybody is off on what they’re getting paid, and we can’t just give these large raises to everybody,” he said, noting that the contract proposed does have larger raises for a few employees, including administrators in wastewater and water supply and distribution. “We need to get those caught up so we don’t lose these good workers, but at the same time, like I said, it’s tough. We have to take care of our taxpayers but we have to take care of our people who are running the city, too.”

Councilman Steve Rippeth says the three-year proposal is comparable to cities in Northeast Ohio.

“I had spoken with a labor attorney who negotiates for a lot of the cities up around Cleveland and such, and he said we’re doing a lot of 2-2-2’s,” Rippeth said. “OK, a 2-2-2 and a 3-2-1? They come to 6.12 over three years. It’s the same amount, so we’re in line with what cities and even big cities are doing.”

Kreinbihl said he will ask Law Director Marvin Fete to write up a proposal, and Council will vote on it at a future meeting.

This contract is separate from those for union-represented city employees. Mayor Joel Day says negotiations are ongoing with labor unions for police, fire, clerical and AFSCME employees.

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