Lynchburg City Council debates over 5% pay increase for city workers

Council members say they’d first like to see plan for addressing salary compression

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Lynchburg City Council debated Tuesday over the discussion of giving city workers a 5% pay increase.

Leaders say there’s about $3.6 million available.

Councilman Sterling Wilder made a motion during Tuesday’s meeting to accept the recommendation.

“[City workers] have worked through a pandemic. All of our city staff members need the five percent. If you’re at the higher percent bracket of a pay raise because of your degree, because of the work you’re doing, you’re there for a particular reason,” Wilder told 10 News.

But Councilman Chris Faraldi was against the proposal in its present form, arguing it would make a current issue over salary compression worse.

“Those at the top will get a strong majority of those funds; and those at the bottom, who are the ones who really need it, will not get much to address those compression issues,” Faraldi said Wednesday.

Faraldi asked to postpone the discussion one week so city staff could write a report on a pay study that was paused during the pandemic.

Reid Wodicka, interim city manager, said that wasn’t enough time.

“If the argument is, ‘well, we don’t have enough time to make a plan,’ then we should at least put a lockbox on these funds with the specific intention of moving forward with a compression plan for council to reconsider later this year,” said Faraldi.

While Wilder believes city employees should receive the pay increase now, he agreed there should be a plan to address compression and suggested city staff take one year to report back to council.

“It’s not enough time to come up with a real, strong proposal for us to make a decision in two weeks time period on an issue that has been in our community for over 20-plus years about compression,” said Wilder

Council ultimately voted 4-3 to revisit the topic during their May 11 meeting.


About the Author:

Tim Harfmann joined the 10 News team in September 2020 and works at the station's Lynchburg bureau.