City workers: We deserve raise, too

Less than 12 hours after Clovis police received a hefty pay increase, roughly 100 city employees protested Friday by taking a sick day.

City employees were protesting the fact there is no plan to increase wages of all city employees, though several said they were happy the city commission awarded a $714,899 annual pay increase for city police.

City officials said 72 employees of the public works department and 26 from the parks and recreation department either called in sick or reported to work Friday morning, filled out a sick form, and left.

There are about 335 city employees.

City Manager Ray Mondragon said most of the employees were protesting the pay issue. The landfill was closed and sanitation pick-up was limited, he said.

“I was surprised they resorted to that,” Mondragon said. “I cannot tolerate this type of behavior. The commission voted. We’re moving forward. Now it’s our job to find a plan for other employees.”

Several employees with the public works department said they were angered the city commission didn’t include them in a competitive pay increase they believe is long overdue.

“I was kind of hurt. A police sergeant is going to be making $20.76 an hour — that’s twice what I make and I’ve been there longer than most sergeants,” said Jason Adams, a six-year sanitation driver who said he missed work Friday due to a family emergency.

Mark Bonney, a container truck driver for public works, said employees, including himself, didn’t work Friday “as an effort to get recognized” by city officials.

“We need more money,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys (working for the city) who are on welfare ... and that’s ridiculous, it shouldn’t be that way.”

There is no plan among public works employees to stage another protest, Bonney said.

A majority of complaints city hall fields from citizens are related to the work of the public works department, Assistant City Clerk Claire Burroughes said. But the main reason for those complaints is because there are too few employees to get the job done, she said.

City officials said a wage survey earlier this year showed salaries of public works employees to be under par for similar-sized cities in the state.

After reviewing the survey, city commissioners decided to up the wages of Clovis’ public works employees to the minimum average salaries depicted in the survey, plus 10 cents an hour. The increase was earlier this year, when the city commission approved 4 to 12 percent salary increases for all city employees, including police.

“When we did that survey we found out (public works employees) were considerably below minimum for the market,” City Commissioner Cathy Haynes said.

While Public Works Director Harry Wang was critical of the protest, he did say he understands employees’ complaints.

“There should be a plan for everybody,” he said.

Haynes said she believes a property tax will need to be approved to fund the pay raise for police. The city commission can pass a 3.9 mil property tax that would generate roughly $1.1 million annually, Haynes said. If they want to increase property tax even more, they’d have to get approval from the Legislature, she said.

She said the city commission voted to increase police pay because the department is functioning in a crisis mode and there are too few officers to patrol the streets properly.