Vienna City Council tables legislation on police raise

VIENNA, W.Va. (WTAP) - Vienna City Council tabled legislation that would give local police a significant raise.

The leader behind the legislation, Council Member Tom Azinger, is the only member who voted against tabling it.

He said, “So we come down to the basic question and that is do we want enough police officers to have a safe city?”

The legislation would increase police salaries by $5.77 an hour. The purpose would be to help with recruitment and retention.

The Vienna police force has been down two officers for the last three to four years and six officers are eligible for retirement in the next year and a half to two years. That’s according to Police Chief Mike Pifer.

“If all six people retire, that could really be something to worry about here,” he said.

Pifer added that, since 2018, they’ve hired ten officers and have had ten leave. Six retired and four resigned.

“We used to have a lot of applicants. We had close - I know close to 100 several years ago and probably within the past ten years that number has declined significantly and right now it’s not uncommon to have below ten or even five even take the test,” he said.

While no council members were against a raise, multiple voiced concerns on the amount proposed, which Mayor Randy Rapp said would raise the budget by $428,479 and 89 cents.

Council Member Kim Williams said, “I think that we need to scale back the compensation portion to - so that we don’t overextend ourselves because what I don’t want to see is us getting into a situation where we have to raise the police fee or add additional fees onto the residents of Vienna.”

Williams suggested a $2 an hour raise to make Vienna Police officers’ pay competitive. That would raise their pay from $23 to $25. Williams referred to Parkersburg police starting at $23.47 an hour and Washington County officers being paid $25.25 an hour.

According to Mayor Rapp, that $2 an hour raise would cost the city $148,525 and 78 cents.

Rapp listed how multiple different levels of raises would impact the budget.

Azinger pointed to Rapp’s amounts, saying “A $10,000 raise effective September first would be the equivalent of giving them a $6,000 raise effective July first.”

Azinger also argued that the city could afford his proposal, pointing to the over $1.5 million dollar carry over from the budget last year.

“If we don’t take action now…now…we may have a far less safe city in the very near future,” Azinger said.

He emphasized the urgency of getting the legislation passed, pointing out how long the process takes to get a police officer on the ground from the time they take their initial test. Pifer said that, if an officer tests in the fall, they could get on the ground working in about a year in the best case scenario.

Council members also discussed other ways they could address the issue on top of a raise.

Williams said, “Another thing, in my opinion, would be to be able to develop and fund a marketing program to attract officers here.”

Council Member Melissa Elam suggested incentivizing officers with bonuses if they successfully recruit people. She clarified that the incentive wouldn’t apply if the officers recruited are from other local departments in the Mid-Ohio Valley.

Another idea discussed was having new officers use the state pension fund. It was clarified that current officers’ pensions would not change.

Pifer told WTAP that he’s open to the ideas.

Members said they want to look into the issue further and plan on bringing it back next meeting.

According to Mayor Rapp, Vienna has increased their police officers’ salaries by $11,138 in the last 36 months.

Azinger said that Vienna has never paid its officers enough. He also said that only a substantial raise will help with retention.

Officials said that the challenges the Vienna Police Department faces are seen nationwide.