Clay County Commission will consider the pay raise for Clay EMS workers at its meeting on Monday.
Mayor Dale Reagan said that the raise would equate to about a dollar on the hour per employee, totaling $18,000 on the county’s side.
“We’re not alone in this because everybody’s had a problem trying to retain good employees,” Reagan said. “So whatever we can do to help try and make that right, and show them how much we appreciate them, then that’s what we need to be doing. ”
Reagan said that the city and the county had a two-year contract with a set amount for EMS pay. He said that because of issues with EMS employee retention, this one-time county payment could be used to raise salaries.
County Commissioner Bryan Coons said that once the contract is up in June, it’s up to the city to potentially renegotiate terms.
“But what the city is going to do is they’re going to pass a resolution giving the dollar an hour raise to the employees,” Coons said. “We’ll supply $18,000 and they’ll supply the rest. And they say it’s around $8,000. I had a conversation with Mayor Luke Collins and one of the alderman and they were discussing at the time, and over the phone, Luke said that he felt like they can get the other money to go in as good faith to help the employees. And our good faith is to pay the $18,000. But if they don’t come up with their part and they don’t give a raise, this goes through, it’s null and void.”
County Clerk Donna Rich Watson said that the process for giving the county’s portion will work similarly to grant funding. She said that there has to be proof of the raise occurring for the county to give the money to the city.
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