At Monday night's Hammond City Council meeting, council members approved a heavily amended 2009 city budget.
Missing from the budget was the clause which would have raised Fire Chief Dave Hamm's salary to parity with Police Chief Brian Miller's salary. In Mayor McDermott's proposed 2009 city budget submitted in August, Hamm's annual salary would have jumped from $70,000 to $82,400. Hamm's salary was bumped back down to $72,100 after the city council nixed the request.
McDermott argued that the city council was risking a $250,000 lawsuit for violating the firefighters' contract requirements; however, Council President Dan Repay said the city council had agreed to give all city employees a 3 percent raise. The issue was a matter of fairness.
"If Dave Hamm wants to sue us, that's a chance we'll have to take," Councilwoman JoAnn Matanovich said.
Had the City Council voted down the amended budget, they would have had until December 1 (state deadline for 2009 budgets) to meet in a special session. Otherwise, the budget submitted to the state would have been at the amount submitted in September. (Is this a good thing or a bad thing for taxpayers? What is the difference in the two amounts?)
The issue first came up in February with a city ordinance to achieve parity between the Fire Chief and Police Chief. The ordinance was rejected by failure of the council to bring it to a vote.
If the mayor declines to sign off on the budget, the 2009 budget would revert back to the 2008 budget amount.