Council overrides budget veto; three plan to re-visit pay issue

Members of the City Council this morning voted 6-1 to override Mayor A.J. Holloway’s veto of the FY ’09 municipal budget, but at least three councilmembers said they planned to re-consider their position on employee compensation and longevity pay, two issues scheduled for a vote Tuesday.

Councilman Tom Wall was the lone dissenter in the veto override, but Councilman George Lawrence said he planned to re-examine the pay issues Tuesday. Councilman Ed Gemmill also planned on re-visiting the issue, he said after the meeting this morning.

The budget proposal had originally passed as a resolution, but the employee issues were set by ordinances, which typically require two readings before a vote is taken. The second reading will be Tuesday.

In his veto of the municipal budget this week, the mayor vowed to veto the two pay measures if they arrive on his desk in their current fashion. Instead, he proposed a 2½ percent pay increase and increasing the longevity pay from $6 to $9 a month instead of the $1,600 across-the-board net pay increase and $15 a month in longevity pay proposed by the council.