Rochester City Council debates rolling back pay raise

One council member says it needs to be done

And out of isolation.

Corona stinger the coronavirus falls in the category of unchartered waters for everyone?

Including rochester city leaders.

As more people endure furloughs... paycuts and business closures... now a city councilmember is calling on local government to consider rolling back a pay raise.

Kimt news 3's isabella basco joins us live with the details.

Isabella?

George and katie?

City council leaders got a lot of heat for the controversial decision to raise their salaries.

Councilmember shaun palmer says it's a topic that needs to be reassessed.

This week... council member shaun palmer asked fellow members to roll back their pay raise.

Isabella: "what was the response from other leaders and other people when you sent this letter out?"

Palmer: "i don't think they are very happy, and i don't think they are seeing the big picture."

And, he wants to take a hard look at how the city is spending money elsewhere too.

"we're 3 million dollars over budget on north broadway, and there's a lot of different finances that go into that, we could do a mill and overlay, redo the lights on 7th street for about a million dollars which would save 19 million dollars in the budget."

But councilmember michael wojcik isn't buying into palmer's idea.

"we are probably among the very lowest paid of city employees, anything we do is going to be largely symbolic and not really going to help with the overall numbers."

Wojcik wants to keep moving forward.

"it's critically important the city continues to be a source of stability in the local economy and keep our projects which are already funded moving because we don't want to lose some of the shared funding on it and we don't want to contribute to the unemployment we are going to have in the community."

Clearly this is just one of many such debates to come, as the city grapples with what to do next.

Councilmember palmer tells me he plans on bringing up the salary topic at mondays city council meeting.

He'll bring a motion up at the end of the meeting to garner support and move forward.

Live in rochester ib kimt news 3.

Thanks isabella.

That city council meeting is set