Dems fight raises in mayor's office

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - City-County Council Democrats are demanding that pay raises for more than a dozen city staff members be rescinded immediately.

The 14 staffers for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard got increases averaging 18 percent. And the Democrats are ready to pass a law to keep that kind of action from happening again.

"He knows full well we're facing a budget crisis this year as we begin to prepare the 2013 budget, yet he would go ahead and say OK to these pay increases," said Mary Moriarty Adams, a council Democrat.

Moriarty and other council Democrats ? now the majority ? don't like more than $149,000 in raises to 14 mayor's office staff members. Three deputy mayors got raises of more than $22,000 each. And a new deputy mayor of education was hired at a salary of $120,000 per year. This comes at a time when the city faces a budget shortfall of $30 million or more and potential cuts to public safety.

"We call on the Mayor today, to rescind these pay increases immediately," said council member Brian Mahern, as he started a news conference with several other democratic council members at his side Monday.

That's not going to happen, said the mayor's communication director, Marc Lotter, who said the money for the raises is money saved by the mayor's office.

"It was all fully funded and paid for. This is nothing but typical political grandstanding by Brian Mahern," said Lotter.

But Mahern and other council democrats want to go a step further, saying they will consider an ordinance that would require the mayor to get council approval for raises of more than 10 percent. In addition, they say they would consider reducing the mayor's staff budget in 2013 for the amount of the recent raises.

"We can certainly look into it. And if we can do it, I think we should do it," said Adams.

Democrat Jennifer Wagner however, defended the raises on this past week?s edition of Indiana Week in Review.

"I actually have no problem with raising the pay in the mayor's office, because ? and this is a personal issue for me ? because I am married to someone who worked for Bart Peterson for six years, if you want top talent, you have to pay top talent,? Wagner said.

But council democrats are upset that they were never consulted about the raises or the new staff member. They found out about it a week ago, even though it was put into place three months ago. And the Democrats do have power this year that they haven't had in the past.
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Source: http://feeds.wishtv.com/~r/WISHTV_News/~3/Vy3HZ9oFUPU/council-democrats-fight-raises-in-indy-mayors-office

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