Come On Mandan City Commission – Take Care Of Those That Serve!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say anytime you have a gathering of sorts, and the topic of money comes into play, there are going to be some issues. This was the case last night during the Mandan City Commission meeting - pay raises were discussed for city employees. KFYR TV reported that the discussion became rather heated at times. A committee appointed by the Financial and Human Resource directors recommended that all city salaries be increased to 100 percent of market value with a four percent equity.

Mandan city employees are only paid 87% of the market value of cities in North and South Dakota and Minnesota. The most important part is to take care of those that keep us safe. “The biggest adjustments do happen to be in our public safety field. So police, fire, and some public works personal,”  said Brittany Cullen, director of Human Resources. Even the commissioners have admitted that the police department has had issues dealing with trying to please their staff due to lower pay - and what does that tell you? Dennis Rhor, Mandan City Commissioner agrees that some of the problems within the police are simply keeping the officers there. Another fellow commissioner, Joseph Camisa weighed in heavy on this as well - “You’re having a situation where the police department is getting highly burnt out, the fire department is sending out crews that aren’t fully complete. We’re having situations where we are putting safety at risk,”

Was a pay raise granted? For now, no. By a four-to-one vote, the commission decided to table consideration of the salary study until Feb. 2.

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