City Council heard their first update on the upcoming fiscal year 2023-2024 budget at their meeting on Monday. Describing his presentation as a "verbal preview for the numbers that are forthcoming," City Manager Chris Story walked Council through some of the upcoming year's expected largest expenditures, including a plan to fund the new City Fire Department headquarters renovation at 450 Wofford Street without longterm debt and around $2 million for implementation of a new pay scale system for City employees. City Council approved a contract with a firm late last year to conduct a salary study for all City employees to determine where adjustments needed to be made to bring staff salaries into better alignment with the current job market for each field.
According to Story, the firm examined the City's staff positions and compared those with public sector employees in Spartanburg's nearby peer communities. Additionally, the firm looked internally to gauge how staff positions have evolved and job descriptions may have changed over the years with new technologies emerging in a number of fields and new responsibilities falling to staff members as the City's work evolves. Story said he expects the new City employee pay scale to be fully implemented as part of the upcoming budget.
Story also cited Spartanburg's continued economic growth as having a positive impact on the City's budget that he said will pay for the new expenditures, "All of the economic development work that we've discussed over the last several years is beginning to bear some fruit." City Council will consider the upcoming fiscal year budget over the coming weeks, and after approval it will go into effect on July 1. For more from Monday's City Council meeting, view the agenda packet and full video by visiting our City Council meeting portal here.