BECKLEY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Members of Beckley City Council met Tuesday evening for their regular session, a meeting which would see a revisiting of the ongoing proposed compensation increase for sworn members of the Beckley Police Department.
Initially presented weeks ago as a $2,500 increase in compensation for members of the Beckley Police Department, the proposal, was met with a counter-proposal for the alternate rate of $8000, over three times the originally proposed amount.
The sustainability of such an increase was brought into question, with some members of Council expressing frustration that the proposal had not been brought up for discussion between members prior to assembly for the session.
Beckley Mayor Rob Rappold, during a recent City Council Workshop session, addressed the $8000 proposal, calling to the notion unprecedented in the city’s history.
Rappold would present a compromise proposal of a $4000 increase for department members, stating:
“The long-short of it is, after much deliberation, we feel that it would be reasonable to make a compromise to raise the [proposed] increase of $2500 to the police department only – raise that to $4000 with the proviso that, at the end of the year, we would evaluate our financial situation,” said Rappold on Monday.
“We would evaluate fairness to other employees in the other operating departments throughout the city; and if we’re capable of doing more, we’d certainly want to do it.”
Tuesday’s session, however, saw a motion presented for approval of a raise in the amount of $8,000, which would ultimately carry with very little in the way of discussion.
The decision brings to a close discourse surrounding the hot-button in the capacity in which it was first presented to Council nearly a month prior to Tuesday’s meeting.
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