City of Safford employees who are eligible to receive a longevity bonus received assurance from the City Council at its meeting Monday that the bonuses will go out Jan. 1. Employees who may deserve a merit bonus, however, will have to wait until December to see if it will be re-implemented.

The merit raises were frozen in July along with the longevity raises. Interim City Manager David Kincaid recommended paying the bonuses for this year in a one-time payment rather than portion them out over time. The council unanimously voted with Kincaid’s recommendation to award the longevity increase.

The increase will cost the city about $8,800 and will be distributed to employees who have reached their five-year increment on the pay classification scale, according to Kincaid. The city previously budgeted $17,600 for longevity increases. Human Resources coordinator Christine Fisher said the increase will affect approximately 25 employees.

While the cost of the longevity increase is certain, the cost of a potential merit increase will not be known until after employee evaluations have been completed. Kincaid said the evaluations should be completed by the end of November.

Mayor Ron Green, Vice Mayor Jason Kouts and Councilors Ken Malloque and Jerry Hancock said they were against approving the merit increase at this time because they were worried about city revenues dropping due to the poor economy. The foursome said they would like to see what the city’s revenues looked like down the road before approving the merit raises.

Kincaid recommended awarding merit increases that ranged from 2 to 4 percent to deserving employees – excluding department heads, who would receive no increase. He said based on past merit increases, the incentives would cost approximately $60,000.

Councilor Hancock said he felt there are a number of employees who work for other municipalities that would be “tickled to death” if they had received a $1,500 raise already given to Safford employees.

Hancock was referring to an across-the-board 75-cent cost-of-living raise approved by the council in July. That raise equates to all city employees being paid $1,560 more for the 2008/09 fiscal year.

“I’m not saying no; I’m not willing to vote for it – I don’t want to vote against it,” Hancock said. “I’m not riding the fence. I’m saying, let’s table it, let’s look at the revenue stream in December.”

Smith made a motion to follow Kincaid’s recommendation and award the merit increase. After Smith’s motion was defeated 3-4, Vice Mayor Kouts moved to table the item until December when the council would have more definite numbers.

Kincaid reported the city’s sales tax had increased about 4.8 percent from the previous year during an update on the city’s revenues on the previous agenda item. He added that due to state cutbacks, however, the city is probably about only 1.5 percent ahead of last year’s revenue.

Those who voted against the increase said employees deserved the raises but were in favor of tabling the item until December. That motion passed.

Kincaid said he would bring a finite dollar amount for the increase and an additional two months of revenue information for the council’s review at its meeting in December. He added that tabling the matter would not delay any payment because the increases are not handed out until January.