Crossville city council approves 2nd reading of budget that includes unexpected raise.

Crossville city council approved the second reading of the 2017-18 budget under the consent agenda during the regular June Council meeting. No comments were made during a public hearing on the budget held at 5:30 PM.

The budget stands at $1,934,451 in the red.  Small routine changes and adjustments could still be made pending the third and final reading tentatively set for Thursday evening June 29 during a planned called meeting. One of the small changes that was discussed during the audit committee meeting earlier Tuesday evening was the fact that the council will receive a raise to their monthly salary of about $20 a month. The raise was unexpected and council did not know about it until city finance director Fred Houston advised them of the change.

Crossville city manager Greg Wood and council members

J.H. Graham, Danny Wyatt, Mayor James Mayberry,

Pamala Harris and Scot Shanks 

The city council salary is matched to the monthly salary of the Cumberland County Commission who will receive the same raise. The county commissioner's salary is based on a percentage of the salary of the Cumberland County Mayor Kenneth Carey, who also received a raise this year. Mayor Carey's salary is set by the Tennessee General Assembly.

The new monthly salaries will be $393.45 per month up from $374.71 and go into effect on July 1, 2017. The numbers were provided to finance director Houston by county finance director Nathan Brock.

Also approved was the tax rate for the city and while the certified tax rate due to the reappraisal has not been received by the city yet, there will be no increase and the certified rate from the Tennessee Comptroller's office will be the rate set. It is expected that the new rate will be received before the final reading on June 29.

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Crossville city council majority approves $5000 raise for city judge position.

The Crossville city council approved a $5,000 per year raise for the position of city judge that will go into effect when the next city judge is appointed following the election of two new council members.

With the raise, the part time judge position now pays $20,000 per year. Councilman Jesse Kerley proposed the raise saying that it had been discussed several months back and pointing out any raise must be approved before the election.

Crossville city council during their September 16 called meeting

Kerley moved to raise the judge's salary from $15,000 to $20,000. The action will require a budget amendment of $2,500 for the last half of the fiscal year. Councilwoman Pamala Harris supported the motion.

Mayor James Mayberry asked about the number of times court meets per year and interim police chief Mark Rosser said 23 and that court met every other week. According to Rosser, night court is more popular then the day court and that night court runs between 2 and 3 hours while the day court runs an hour of slightly more. Mayberry estimated the cost was around $800 per court session of between an hour to about 3 hours.

Ms. Harris asked about preparation time and chief Rosser said in addition to time before court there was paper work to be done after court.

The council's roll call vote approved the motion with council members members Kerley, Harris and Danny Wyatt in favor. Mayor Mayberry and councilman Pete Souza voted against the raise.

The judge position is currently held by Ivy Gardner who was appointed in January 2015 following the retirement of Judge Tom Bean who held the position for many years.

Video of the discussion of city judge raise action