UPDATED: 11 a.m., Nov. 14 | The City of Charleston is adding 52 new positions to the coming fiscal year’s budget, bringing the balanced draft budget’s total to about $330 million. That’s a 6% increase from last year’s approved $311 million budget.
New staff positions are coming to several city departments, with the fire department adding 24 new members, 20 of whom will have temporary, half-year positions. Additional positions run the gamut from street and sidewalk crews to parking safety officers and senior tourism officers.
Some members of the City Council, however, worry the focus on adding new staff may be taking priority away from bolstering existing staff salaries — a hot topic in earlier workshops.
“We’re creating new positions, but we’re not focusing on the staff that we have,” council member Caroline Parker said at the Nov. 12 workshop. “We can find the money. We can change the budget. We can move things around.”
Councilman Robert Mitchell added that while he wasn’t asking for answers during the workshop, he worried that if the city decided to grant raises to existing staff later, that the budget would not allow for them to be distributed until January 2026. Charleston Mayor William Cogswell said he believed that wouldn’t be the case, and that there would be space in the budget to provide staff raises as soon as they were determined.
“There’s a lot at work here, and again, I’m all for figuring out ways to ensure we can pay our employees what they’re worth,” Cogswell said. “But dropping a number in right now would be a little rushed.”
Councilman Ross Appel seconded Cogswell’s point.
“I would agree with the mayor’s suggestion of waiting until we flesh out more of the performance-based pay increases,” he said. “Obviously, employees are looking for more money. That’s no secret. But to go with that, they really want advancement opportunities. I think it makes sense to roll all of that out together instead of guessing about it now.”
By the numbers
In the last month, Charleston City Council members slashed recommended expenditures by about $820,000, increased business licensing fees by about $1.5 million (up to $52.5 million total), increased parking fees (up to $1 per 20 minutes instead of 30 minutes) and finalized salary savings for new and existing positions.
The largest revenue increases come from:
- an increase to property tax revenue, bringing the annual total up to $120.1 million from $114.4 million;
- An increase to business licensing fee revenue, bringing the annual total up to $52.5 million from $47.9 million;
- An increase to franchising fee revenue, bringing the annual total up to $15.8 million from $14.5 million;
- And the increase to parking fees, bringing the annual revenue up to $37.2 million from $33.3 million.
The largest expenditure increases come from:
- Increases to public safety departments to $152.5 million from $133.9 million
- Increases to culture and recreation departments to $38.6 million from $8.4 million
Exact amounts for salary increases and new position salaries were not available.
The draft budget is due to council members by Nov. 19. The council’s first vote on the budget’s approval will be held at the first Charleston City Council meeting in December.
CLARIFICATION: After publication of the original story, the city clarified property taxes and business license increases are based on growth, not an actual fee increase. In addition, parking revenues incorrectly included reserve amounts, according to city spokesman Deja McMillan. The amounts have been updated.
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