BECKLEY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Members of the Beckley City Council assembled on Tuesday Evening for the regular common council session, which saw the issue of compensation for city employees revisited.
City department pay has been an issue of increasing priority in recent weeks following the approval by Beckley City Council of an $8,000 across-the-board pay raise for sworn members of the Beckley Police Department, an amount which was initially presented as $2,500.
Council members reconvened a number of times before the proposed raise saw passage, during which time members disclosed correspondence from members of various city departments inquiring about the use of city funds for similar compensation across those respective departments.
The issue arose again on Tuesday during the Public Participation portion of the meeting, as a Beckley Public Works employee addressed members of Council in no uncertain terms regarding comparable compensation for the Public Works Department.
“We want an $8,000 a year raise; the same as the police officers got. We want you all to take it up…and we can all discuss it and vote on it instead of doing all this stuff behind closed doors. It’s a bunch of crap. I’m not going to settle for it,” said the employee. “If we don’t get the $8,000 a year raise, I will be here [at] every open Council meeting for the rest of my life.”
Additionally, $1.2 million in budget funds were requested to be used for the purchase of new vehicles to be utilized by the city’s Public Works Department.
“The Fire Department gets new vehicles; the Police Department gets new vehicles; the Board of Sanitation gets new vehicles; we want new vehicles. We’re running at least 12 vehicles that are 20-plus years old,” he continued, to which Mayor Rob Rappold declared that he had never seen the Public Works Department mistreated.
In response, the employee alluded to an instance during the previous City Council meeting from earlier in the month at which the Mayor notably left his seat and the room altogether as a city resident was engaging in Public Participation.
“Now Rappold, you can hold your temper and take this public forum just like a man should, unless you want to get up and walk behind that closed door like you did before until I’m done speaking.”
The meeting itself concluded shortly afterward, and it is unclear at the time of writing whether the city intends to adopt the proposed raise for consideration at future meetings.