Pay raise and new hires among topics discussed at Columbus City Council

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI ) – Pay raises and new hires continue to be hot topics for the Columbus City Council.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, the council again addressed the 75 cent an hour raise for city employees.

The council passed the pay raise in September, but have had to postpone putting it into effect.

Since the estimated $670,000 price tag wasn’t included in this year’s budget, council members have to find a way to pay for the raises.

One idea that was floated – again – was using $500,000 from CARES Act money.

But there are concerns since that will only cover part of the cost and only for the first year.

“We want to make this happen, but we need to be careful, doing this in the proper way for the city. I think that it is only fair for our employees that we make sure we do this in a way that we can sustain it,” said Mayor Keith Gaskin.

The Council also voted to require masks in all city buildings and to temporarily close meetings due to the recent rise in COVID cases.