JACKSON, Miss. – Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth I. Stokes requested $2 per hour pay raises for public works employees for their “hard work” in repairing service during the water crisis.Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. informed the council that the city just cannot afford the raises. “I think what Council Stokes is trying to do is very noble,” said Johnson. “Other workers in the city are also doing a great job.”Raises for the public works workers would add up to approximately $1.3 million dollars, the Mayor said.Councilman Stokes fired back with, “We got a fund balance. That’s money that’s not spent. We got money to give these raises. No, we may not have enough to give to everybody, but we got [enough for] public works, and that is who we should start with.”Johnson also pointed out that the city might need the fund balance money to balance the budget. He said there is a $1.6 million dollar decrease in first quarter sales taxes.Stokes does not approve of city using fund balance money to balance the budget. He predicts that the city will use the money for something. “So why not use it to give these people a raise?” Stokes asked.After a lengthy discussion of the matter between Stokes and the mayor, Council President Frank Bluntson, Ward 4, got a consensus to place the pay raise item in the budget committee instead of voting on it.
Stokes said the fund balance currently has $5 million.
“To save faith,” he remarked.
Ward 2 Councilman Chokwe Lumumba chairs the budget committee.
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