FORT PIERCE — The Fort Pierce City Commission approved a pay increase for city employees following negotiations with the Teamsters Union, ending a dispute over how to structure raises for workers.
The discussions involved employees across multiple departments, including sanitation and other community services, with both sides debating how to balance financial constraints with rising living costs.
Union representative Steve Myers framed the issue around broader economic pressures facing workers.
"At its core, this case is about fairness, sustainability, and the real economic conditions that are facing the employees who keep this city running every single day," Myers said.
Myers said both the city and the union agreed on increasing pay ranges by 5%, but disagreed on how that increase should be applied to best support lower-paid employees.
"Both parties agree on increasing the pay ranges by five percent. So the question before you today is not whether the employees should receive a raise, but the real question is, will the raise be meaningful to the employees who need it most," he said.
He also pointed to rising costs and regional competition as factors affecting employee retention.
"Basic expenses, groceries, gas, insurance, they're all increasing. The city's competing in a labor market. If the wages are not competitive, employees will leave. And we know that the wages at the City of Fort Pierce aren't as competitive as the cities and government around here. If wages are not competitive, employees will leave. And when employees leave, the city will incur recruitment costs, training costs, overtime costs, and could reduce services to the citizens," Myers said.
The union proposed a 5% increase, with lower-paid workers instead receiving a $1.60 hourly raise.
City negotiator John J.K. Keller said the city’s counterproposal aimed to provide additional support to lower-wage employees while limiting financial strain.
"The idea was have this $1.20 caveat that would make sure that the folks at the bottom end of the scale benefit in a similar way that the folks at the top would with a five percent increase. That increase was not budgeted for. It would actually put the city at approximately $34,000 over the budget," Keller said.
City Finance Director Johnna Morris said adopting the union’s proposal would deepen the city’s deficit.
"The five percent or $1.60 is an additional $607, so that's an additional $151,229. And that's including all the benefits that are attributed to the wage," she said.
Morris also pointed to other financial obligations the city is facing.
"We have a lot of unforeseens that have come up. Like, for instance, we've got to repair the parking garage that we know of that's over a million dollars. And then we have an FEC bill that we received that's about $480,000. So we have a lot of unforeseens that haven't materialized yet. We've been notified that we have to address them. And so we've got to reserve funds in order to address those," she said.
Commissioners expressed support for employees but raised concerns about long-term financial stability, including uncertainty surrounding potential state-level impacts on local revenues through the elimination of property tax.
"It's not dead. They're still up there in Tallahassee. Whatever we do, we need to be careful because we're talking about going back into negotiations. And we might be going back into negotiations with $30 million out of our budget," Cmissioner Arnold Gaines said.
Commissioner Michael Broderick also warned against expanding the deficit as the city approaches a new budget cycle.
"It seems to me that our hands are tied. We approved a budget at X. We're already $34,000 over X. I can't, in good conscience, increase that deficit to say we're going to take it out of our emergency spending fund. I'm very, very concerned about that," Broderick said.
The commission ultimately voted 4-1 to approve a pay increase of 5%, or $1.20 per hour, whichever is greater — $0.40 less than the union’s proposal.
The raises were made effective retroactively to October, meaning some employees will be eligible for back pay.