VIRGINIA BEACH — City-appointed staff will get a salary increase beginning in July.
In a 9-2 vote, city council agreed to give raises to the city manager, attorney, real estate assessor, clerk and auditor.
One percent increases general pay and the other will affect merit pay, totaling to about $17,000 in raises.
Despite three public speakers asking to deny the raises before the vote, council moved forward, with the only nay votes coming from council members Jessica Abbott and John Moss.
According to Moss, the public needed to know more specifics about what was being voted on that evening.
Moss said the way the agenda item was advertised to the public said left out details. “It didn’t tell the public what their current salary would be, what the percentage increase equaled in terms of dollars … there was transparency or historical record to understand what took place.”
Moss continued to say the council is sending the “wrong signal, especially in a time when we are not, I think, recognizing the debt plague, and I don’t think anyone on this council would disagree, as much as we would like.”
Abbott said her opinion on the raises is similar to Moss’.
“I appreciate the appointed staff very much, and I think they do a great job and work very hard,” Abbott said. “I think the compensation is adequate and that at this time, I can’t support this motion.”
The city council members who voted for the raises did not comment.
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