FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The mayor’s office has proposed a 3 percent pay raise for all city employees in the draft budget it submitted to the City Council two weeks ago. The draft budget also includes proposed merit raises for some employees

That 50-page document was the subject of two days of budget review hearings by the Financial Advisory Committee last week.

“I think it was an extremely fruitful process because it was the first time we’ve ever done anything like this,” said Charles “Chuck” Zunk, the FAC chairman, referring to a process that included department heads stating to the committee the reasons for the budgets they had proposed to Mayor Tim Kant.

Some sections of the draft budget included information organized into four columns, showing the budget and amended budgets for fiscal year 2009 (which ends Sept. 30), the budget amounts submitted by managers and those submitted by the mayor.

“I have enclosed in your council book budget figures from each city department head for the 2009-2010 budget requests for your review,” Kant stated in an Aug. 21 memo to the council. “I am proposing a cost-of-living increase for employees of 3 percent this year.”

City Administrator Gregg Mims said the draft budget also included requests from some departments for merit raises for some of its employees.

“Each individual department head sent a request to the mayor on various employees,” Mims said. “For instance, you may have one department head that recommended raises for four people, and you may have another one that says I’ve got 12 people that I want to recommend for merit raises. It’s not across-the-board, and actually there are some department heads who did not request any merit raises.

The salary raise figures are currently being verified by the human resources department and will be submitted to the FAC prior to its next meeting on Sept. 10, he said. At that time, city staff will provide additional information regarding the draft budget based on questions asked by committee members during the budget hearings held last week, Zunk said.

“Obviously we uncovered a lot of inconsistencies (in the draft budget) that we’ll have a chance to look at before we make our recommendations to the council,” Zunk said.

He said that the committee may not take a position on the pay raise, but instead may ensure the numbers accurately present the information for the council’s consideration as they prepare to formally adopt the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

At last week’s meeting, Zunk also raised questions about the presentation of the budget information and the lack of any narrative summary for some aspects of it, which he said was necessary to set some of the figures in context.

The agenda for next week’s committee meeting includes an “update from city officials regarding questions and information requests from” the Aug. 26-27 meetings, discussion of additional specific items in the budget draft, overall budget review and discussion, and determination of action items.

One local nonprofit group took a guarded approach to the administration’s proposed across-the-board pay raise for city employees.

“We don’t have a position that we’ve developed on the wage increase,” said Gary Gover, president of Citizens for Responsible Government, which organized several forums for candidates during last year’s municipal elections. “The only quick comment is that we would we would want to see such increases tied to a good and suitable index of the cost-of-living for our area, and we don’t know offhand if that is the case.”

One local resident, who has locked horns with the mayor’s office on several issues during the past year, did not mince her words about the proposed pay raise.

“At a time when nearly every Fairhope business and family has taken every measure possible to stay within their budgets, it is unconsionable for the mayor to even consider any pay raise for city personnel,” said Debra Green. “It would be a particular insult to the many small business owners who have made tremendous personal sacrifices to avoid employee layoffs let alone provide cost-of-living increases.”

She disputed the mayor’s recent statements that the recession was over in Fairhope.

In Kant’s Aug. 21 memo to the council, he referred to the new revenue the city will gain this year from the sales tax passed earlier in the year, which he put in the context of the city’s overall revenue. His veto of that tax was rejected by the council in May.

“Revenues will be flat in the general government this year,” he wrote. “Real estate taxes will be down about $250,000. I have made the best estimate for the sales tax at $3.8 million with $1.9 million going to reserves and the other for capital expenditures.”

The Financial Advisory Committee meets at 3 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 10, in the Delchamps Room at the Civic Center.