No citizens commented during the public hearing Monday evening on the West Orange budget for next fiscal year. Councilman Dale Dardeau did comment asking the City Council to change the two percent pay raise for employees to a flat fee pay raise across the board for fulltime employees. Dardeau explained his reason for requesting the change. Dardeau said the employees at the top of the pay scale get more as a result of the percent pay raise and the gap is increased between them and the employees at the bottom, so it’s inequitable. Dardeau made a motion for the change, but it died for a lack of a second.
The only other discussion on the budget was concerning the $5,000 budgeted for the Economic Development Corporation. Public Works Director Mike Stelly informed the council that two new businesses were looking to move to West Orange, but with the demise of the EDC the city would have to do the impact study itself. Councilman Carl Thibodeaux believes the loss of the Economic Development Corporation will be felt by all the entities in the county. Thibodeaux stated that the EDC worked with charitable groups to promote their causes and was not just responsible for bringing industry to the county. Thibodeaux advised the cities will have the responsibility to do all the economic development and promotion of their entities on their own now and the county is going to have an even bigger one.
Two public hearings on the proposed tax rate of 42.5 cents per 100 dollars value will be held in the West Orange Community Center. The first hearing is on Thursday evening and the second will be on Monday evening of next week. Both hearings will start at 5:30. The date of the next regular City Council meeting in West Orange has been moved to Tuesday, September 8.
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