VIDEO: Bruce Board of Alderman Receive a Raise

BRUCE, Miss. (WCBI) – Bruce aldermen will see a slight increase in their salaries. During last night’s Board meeting, they gave each other a raise.

This is the second time the board has proposed a raise, the mayor previously vetoed other proposals, however, last night was a different story.

“We’ve got a lot done for the city of Bruce and I felt like they deserved a raise. The last time they wanted a raise, they wanted- what i felt like- was too much. So it was a 3-2 vote and I vetoed it. So I felt like this was reasonable,” says Mayor Rudy Pope.

The board will receive an extra $100 a month. The 5 aldermen had been previously receiving $250 a month, now they’ll make $350.

Mayor Rudy Pope says he’s proud of the work the board of alderman has done for the town. They make the tough decisions.

“They make all the decisions, I just bring it up on the agenda for them and they make all the decisions, so they work real hard doing all that,” says Pope.

Decisions like making large, but needed, purchases for the town.

“We got a lot of things going on in Bruce, you know so they do a good job at keeping all that going on. You know we just bought a new fire truck, a $400,000 fire truck, so you know they make tough decisions, you know it was a tough decision to do that- we’ll probably be paying it off for the next 20 years, but they do a good job making good decisions,” says Pope.

Pope says the budget will be adjusted to allow for the raises.

“We’re going to make it work some way, you know, city budgets are always that way, we’ll make it work. Depending on how much taxes we can collect. But yea I think it’s fine and that we’ll be able to afford it,” says Pope.

The next board of Alderman meeting will be November 7th.