The Lisbon City Council approved 2.5 percent raises for city employees at its meeting Monday, June 14 meeting.
The 2.5 percent raises were passed to provide cost of living adjustments for the City of Lisbon employees.
Lisbon city administrator Brandon Siggins said that in the past few years, the council has set 3 percent as the raise over the last several years.
Lisbon city council member Stephanie Kamberling said that the council has moved to allowing merit based raises on top of cost of living raises, she was hesitant to give a total 3 percent raise.
“With the performance-based raises, employees have more opportunities to earn a raise than just the cost of living adjustment,” Kamberling said.
“I think that merit raises makes and speaks louder,” Lisbon council member Sara Nost said. “Employees have to work for it, too.”
Lisbon city council member John Bardsley noted that cost of living adjustments were made to help keep Lisbon competitive with other city governments and keep up with other communities.
Siggins noted that the 0.5 percent difference in salaries was a very small portion of the budget.
Bardsley’s motion for a 3 percent raise died for lack of a second.