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Stephanie Wiechmann
Muncie officials say in May, Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour used a law in the Indiana Code to begin giving all full time city workers, except for elected officials, a 10% raise. Those raises spent above what a yearly city ordinance setting maximum salaries authorized. Ridenour’s administration first came to the city council for retroactive approval last month, in June.

00;00;21;20 - 00;00;33;18
Stephanie Wiechmann
The ordinance was introduced and was on its second reading Monday night. But council members voted to table it at the request of Nate Burgess. He's the president of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

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Nate Burgess
It was pretty simple. Give us a 2024 contract and and we'll sign off on it. We were told that we didn't need a contract for this year.

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Stephanie Wiechmann
Burgess says city employees under that union have been working without a contract with the city since January, though the union and the city started negotiating last July. For the second month in a row, Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour did not speak at the council meeting about the raise ordinance.  Deputy city controller Matt Wagley says contract negotiations with the city workers union were still happening when police and fire employees got a similar 10 percent raise in January.

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Matt Wagley
And if the contract had been approved, we would have already had this salary ordinance in place. But it hasn't. And, you know, here we are.

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Stephanie Wiechmann
The mayor approved raises in May, but Burgess says contract negotiations are still going on.

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Nate Burgess
We do have a meeting on the ninth. But as far as I'm concerned, it’s to pick an arbitrator.

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Stephanie Wiechmann
Council members who spoke agreed that the 10% raise for city employees is good, but the process and how it was done, including without a union contract in place, is what is concerning. An ordinance can be tabled for several months before it dies from inaction. In Muncie, Stephanie Wiechmann, IPR news.