of the month.

Class 13 jobs like Street Crew leader, truck driver and Sanitation relief driver now earn $14.25. When called in for overtime to clean up after a storm, the overtime hourly rate is $21.38.

The top hourly job class in the city is for a journeyman meterman, now making $22.87 per hour.

City Councilman Willis Mondy went to bat for Street Department workers earlier this month, seeking an additional raise for those employees during the Jan. 5 Public Works Commission meeting.

Mondy said workers some were making just $8.95 per hour, although the city pay scale suggested higher wages. Mondy inquired specifically about using reserve to fund a department specific raise.

Public Works chair, City Councilwoman Ramona Taylor pointed out the citywide position by position pay review was under study and prevailed in asking Mondy to await the results of that study before making another request.

In recent weeks, city workers received a 3-percent annual bonus in time for holiday shopping. This was in addition to the 3percent raise that showed up on Jan. 15 paychecks.

Each of those 3-percent payouts represents an additional $400,000 in city expenditures. With a pending request for an additional average 11 percent pay increase for utility workers waiting for city council approval, another benchmark raise is under review in a wage, salary and benefit comparison study for all the other city departments.

With work on the benchmark analysis incomplete, city council moved in late December to pass a one month budget, including the 3-percent blanket raise for January, with a full annual budget due by the end

of the month.