Pay Raises for Daphne Police and Firefighters

By News 5

Published: Mon, March 19, 2007 - 1:03 pm

There was an important decision Monday night on whether police officers and firefighters in Daphne would get a pay raise.

The vote by the Daphne City Council couldn't have been any closer.

According to the proposed ordinance to be voted on by the council, starting police officers and firefighters in Daphne would see their pay go up from $12.78 an hour to $16.54 an hour.

Supporters of the ordinance had said a pay raise was necessary to keep Daphne from losing veteran officers and firefighters to other nearby cities that were paying more.

At Monday night's meeting, eight people addressed the council.

All spoke in favor of the raise, including the wife of a police officer.

She said, "The policemen in Daphne cannot just be a policeman, they have to work all the time. And they have no family time. My children say, 'Will we ever see dad again since we moved here-'"

Daphne resident Charlie McNichol said, "I assure you that if you raised the sales tax a half a cent, I mean a half a penny, you're not going to get very much criticism at all from the public when you are talking about doing it for public safety."

And another Daphne resident, John Colter, said, "The fire department is always responding to emergencies in my neighborhood. You see them all the time, at night, daytime. They're all professionals."

After plenty of discussion among themselves, Daphne City Council members voted four to three to approve the pay raise.

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