City Council revisits Beckley Police Department pay raise proposition during Workshop session

BECKLEY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – The Beckley City Council convened on Monday evening for a special Workshop session preceding Tuesday’s Regular Session.

During Monday’s session, members of Council discussed a proposed budget alteration from the most recent meeting two weeks ago which pertained to compensation for members of the Beckley Police Department.

During the meeting in question, which occurred on Tuesday, July 11, 2023, a proposed $2500 across-the-board increase in compensation was discussed for all sworn members of the Beckley Police Department. This proposal, however, was met with a proposal for the alternate rate of $8000, over three times the initially 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.

Speaking during Monday’s Workshop session, Beckley Mayor Rob Rappold addressed the $8000 proposal, which was referred to as unprecedented in the history of the city. It was additionally disclosed that, following the prior Council meeting earlier in the month, correspondence was received by Council members from members of various other city departments with regard to the proposed increase for Police Department members.

With this in mind, Rappold presented a compromise proposal of a $4000 increase for department members.

“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.”

It was pointed out during Monday’s public meeting that, procedure is such that a revisiting of the agenda item originally proposing a $2500 department increase would require presentation of a motion for discussion of the agenda item at an upcoming Council meeting for a particular amount followed by a seconding of said motion.

With regard to departments aside from the Beckley Police Department and correspondence received by members of City Council, Councilman Robert Dunlap assured that it is the aim of the City to exercise fairness with regard to consideration of the various departments essential to the City’s operation.

The issue of a pay raise for members of the Beckley Police Department is expected to be addressed yet again at Tuesday evening’s City Council meeting.