Seat Pleasant council amends FY 2025–26 budget after heated debate over COLA, salary caps and professional development

The Seat Pleasant City Council considered and voted on multiple amendments during the second reading Monday of the fiscal year 2025–26 budget (Ordinance O25-13), focusing discussion on cost-of-living adjustments (COLA), newly proposed positions and department professional-development allowances.

Councilwoman Kearney introduced four text amendments aimed at strengthening reserves and trimming recurring costs: withhold COLA for employees whose base salary exceeds $50,000 (redirect savings to reserves); keep the public-engagement events budget at FY2025 levels ($75,000) and move any excess to reserves; reduce the council’s professional-development allocation from $15,000 to $10,000 (and reduce the economic‑development PD line from $11,050 to $10,000); and cap salaries for two newly proposed positions (deputy city clerk and outreach coordinator) at $50,000 each.

The council voted on several of those measures. A motion to withhold COLA for salaries above $50,000 passed (vote on record: 5–2 during the meeting). Councilmembers debated legal limits on applying COLA selectively; a former human-resources manager noted during discussion that “COLA will have to be applied [to] all employees” and legal counsel and the finance director cautioned that the method of applying or withholding COLA may require further legal review. Kearney said she was willing to consider alternatives such as a one‑time bonus for lower‑paid employees rather than an across‑the‑board COLA.

On staffing, the council debated two new positions that had been added to the proposed budget. Earlier in the process, finance had transferred $60,000 from contingency to fund a deputy city‑clerk position; staff later adjusted FICA and related figures to reflect that change. Councilwoman Kearney proposed capping the deputy clerk and the outreach coordinator at $50,000 rather than the $60,000 shown in the draft; that amendment passed 6–1. A separate motion by Councilwoman Love to eliminate the deputy‑clerk position failed on council vote (measure recorded as failing 1–6). Finance staff explained that the only technical change since the prior reading was adjusting FICA and related line items after removing $60,000 from contingency for the deputy‑clerk position.

The council also approved Kearney’s motion to hold the public‑events budget at $75,000 for city events and move any remainder to reserves. Members discussed whether professional‑development cuts would limit elected‑official or staff training; those lines will be reduced to $10,000 for council professional development and $10,000 for economic development per the amendment.

Discussion also touched on the practicalities of travel and training budgeting: councilmembers and staff recommended booking conference travel earlier and using scholarships and city vehicles when feasible to save costs. Legal counsel and the finance director urged caution before adopting policies that could run afoul of employment law; the HR representative said mandatory COLA withholding across selected employees may not be legally viable and the council discussed alternatives such as one‑time bonuses.

By the end of the session, the council had approved multiple Kearney amendments that shift some recurring salary increases into reserves and reduce several discretionary PD allocations; they rejected the motion to eliminate the deputy clerk but passed the salary‑cap amendment. Several councilmembers said they wanted better documentation and clearer breakout numbers in the ordinance text before final publication; staff agreed to update the ordinance language and line items and to circulate corrected figures to the council.