City Council OKs equal riase for firefighter's

WXIA TV

February 21, 2005

Reported by: Kay Flowers

The Atlanta City Council Monday approved a higher raise for Atlanta firefighters than the one Mayor Shirley Franklin proposed for them.

The council today approved its $230 million budget and voted to increase the 3.5 percent raise the mayor proposed for firefighter to 4 percent, which is equal to the raise earmarked for police.

The extra money for firefighters would come out of an $18 million surplus in city revenues.

The mayor’s approval of the raise, however, is still a question.

“I would hope that we wouldn’t see a veto over a $200,000 line item in a half-billion dollar budget,” said David Rhodes of the Atlanta Firefighters Union.

Franklin has eight days to accept the pay raise and the budget as amended or to use her line item veto.

Dozens of City of Atlanta firefighters marched to City Hall earlier in the day to protest the proposed 3.5 percent pay raise. Firefighters called the rate unfair when compared to the four percent raise being given to City of Atlanta police officers.

“It’s not about a dollar amount for firefighters. If it was 50 cents less than police or $5,000 less than police, we would still be here fighting over the principle that we should be paid equally,” Rhodes said during the rally.

If we get the four percent raise today, we will still be $2,080 behind [the national average]," he added. "So, we haven’t really won, but we haven’t really lost any ground.

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