Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Personnel Pay And Benefits topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Finance committee previews 4.5% COLA, one-time bonuses and health-insurance increase in draft budget
Summary
City Manager Glenn Adams told the finance committee the draft FY2025–26 budget includes a recommended 4.5% cost-of-living increase, a tiered one-time bonus program and a 4.75% health-insurance increase; staff said the budget can cover the proposals ahead of final council action Monday.
City Manager Glenn Adams presented the draft FY2025–26 employee funding package to the Homewood City Finance Committee on Sept. 24, saying the proposal includes a 4.5% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), a tiered, one-time bonus program and the projected health-insurance increase the city received from its carrier.
Adams said the 4.5% COLA is what he is recommending to bring the city closer to pay parity with neighboring municipalities. “The 4.5% does, in fact, allow us to have the budget we talked about,” he told the committee.
The committee heard a detailed breakdown of the one-time bonus and related employer costs. The bonus program proposed in the draft would cost $279,007.50 in gross payouts; Adams said the additional employer tax burden on the payouts is $81,004.21 and the pension contribution associated with the bonuses is $78,009.76 — for a combined itemized total of $440,001.47 that the draft budget carries.
Adams also said the city has received its final insurance‑rate notice for the plan year: a 4.75% increase. He told the committee the budget as presented incorporates that increase and that the draft assumes employees will be responsible for 25% of the increase while the city covers the remaining three quarters.
Committee members repeatedly framed the package as an effort to catch up with years when the city did not fully adjust pay scales; at least one councilor praised the multi‑year progress the city has made on COLA increases. No formal vote on the employee package took place at the Sept. 24 hearing; Adams and staff described the numbers as the administration’s recommendation ahead of the full council budget vote scheduled for Monday, Sept. 29.
The committee requested that department heads and supervisors be notified that the 4.5% figure is for this fiscal year’s budget recommendation and is not a guarantee of the same percentage in future years, as year-to-year authority depends on revenues and future council decisions.
Looking ahead, Adams and the committee said the draft will be brought to the full council for adoption as scheduled; any changes to the COLA, bonuses or insurance assumptions would require council action before the budget becomes effective on Oct. 1.
