The city of Salisbury honored fallen firefighters Justin Monroe and Vic Isler Saturday with a fitting memorial service, another step in healing the wounds left by last March’s fire.
But as hard as it was to remember that horrible day and contemplate the firefighters’ sacrifice, the city now faces a more difficult task: Making sure the firefighters left behind by Monroe and Isler receive competitive pay for the risky jobs they carry out every day.
The same goes for law enforcement officers and some other city employees. A recent market study commissioned by the city found that almost a third of city employees are being paid less than the minimum recommended for their positions, and that the disparity is a particular problem in public safety positions ó fire and police.
The consultant who presented the study’s preliminary findings to City Council in January, John Maxwell, is scheduled to give a final report this month. But it’s pretty easy to size up the dilemma council will face without a lot more details. Bringing those salaries up to par will cost nearly $500,000, Maxwell has said. And if the city were also to remedy the salary compression that would result, the total cost gets close to $1 million.
That’s $1 million the city does not have. The recession is forcing many municipalities and counties to freeze salaries and leave positions open. Salisbury is looking at a $1.4 million to $1.7 million shortfall in 2009-10, so $1 million in raises sounds like a pipe dream.
But “not now” is very different from “never,” and the city probably will correct this problem over time, rather than all at once. This kind of change has to be phased in, and the sooner the phases start, the better. Council sounds like its heart is in the right place on the pay issue.
Still, a troubling question lingers. Why did the city allow public safety salaries to fall so far behind? Firefighters and police officers don’t expect to get rich, but they should be able to count on the city to keep their pay competitive. Their loyalty and service should not be taken for granted ó a lesson the nation learned on Sept. 11, 2001.
If the city’s top administrative salaries are in line with surrounding counties and public service salaries are not, Salisbury has a serious problem.