City council postpones vote on police, firefighter raises

ATLANTA — Atlanta City Council members postponed a vote on giving police and firefighters a raise.

Channel 2 Action News broke the story how all city workers except sworn officers would get a raise. For close to two hours, there was tense talk between City Council members and police and firefighters.

The council decided it needed to do more work on the matter, but Mayor Kasim Reed pulled no punches, saying, “If they want to withdraw their lawsuit I’ll meet them at the negotiating table tomorrow.”

Reed was referring to the firefighters' and police officers' lawsuit over their pension, pay and benefits. He said if they move forward with the litigation, they won’t get a raise.

More than three dozen police officers and firefighters sat through a City Council Finance Committee meeting. They told lawmakers Atlanta's firefighters are asking the council to stop Reed by overriding him and vote to give them a 3 percent pay raise.

The police union's president, Ken Allen said, “So council, I’m going to say it, this is on your back. Because the administration has plainly shown that we are not going to get a fair shake.”

But the committee decided it needs more information and tabled the vote until Aug. 17. Union representatives say Atlanta residents may be the losers in this, because many officers are now looking at other municipalities for work.

WSBTV