Durham Reporter

The City of Durham’s top priority during the solid waste collectors’ protest, which started on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, was to ensure that solid waste collections, specifically garbage, continued for the more than 88,000 households in our city. 

As solid waste collectors and drivers have returned to their jobs, garbage collections are almost back to normal for the week of September 11-15. Recycling and yard waste collections have also resumed. 

Throughout the protest and discussions, we have received questions about compensation for all job classifications, and how we plan to move forward to ensure all employees are compensated for the valuable services and programs they provide to our community. 

We are sharing this letter and video from City Manager Wanda Page, along with some frequently asked questions, to help provide updated information to our community.

MESSAGE FROM CITY MANAGER WANDA PAGE

"Since becoming City Manager, I have always made it a point to stress that compensating City employees, whether through pay, benefits, or bonuses, is a top priority for me.

So, when our budget allows us to make one-time bonus payments to employees, as we have been able to do in previous years, we do just that, but in a way that is responsible and equitable.

After receiving final sales tax distribution for Fiscal Year 22-23 on September 11, we now have a final snapshot of how much we have available for one-time expenses.

I am happy to announce that I am recommending to City Council that we use some of our fund balance to give bonuses to our dedicated and hard-working employees. 

Here’s the breakdown of how I recommend bonuses be paid:

Full-time Employees

• Gross salaries are less than $57,000 annually: $3,000 bonus
• Gross salaries are between $57,000 - $90,000 annually: $2,500 bonus
• Gross salaries are more than $90,000 annually: $2,000 bonus 

Part-time Employees

• $1,000 bonus

These one-time bonuses will use more than $6.5 million of our fund balance.

Our remaining fund balance will continue to support the City’s future needs and provide a layer of protection in case of emergency.

As a longtime City employee, it has always been important to me that we pay our employees fairly: I care about every one of them, because I know how hard they work for our residents each day. 

Equally important though, is that we use Durham’s tax dollars in a responsible way that enables us to continue to meet emergencies as well as our ongoing needs as our city grows in the coming years.

The City continues to maintain excellent credit ratings as our General Obligation Bond rating has just been affirmed as AAA. These are the highest possible ratings from Fitch Ratings, Moody's, and S&P Global Ratings, which are the top three international credit rating agencies.

Durham is still one of only a handful of U.S. cities to have such an excellent rating by all three agencies. It’s not an easy accomplishment, but it allows Durham to borrow money at the lowest interest rates to enable us to spend millions to upgrade our roads, improve our neighborhoods, and build facilities and other vital infrastructure that supports our quality of life and makes us a great place to live, work, and play. 

And yes, it makes Durham the envy of other similarly sized and even larger communities. 

Finally, I know pay is important to everyone. By early January we will have recommendations from our Classification and Compensation Study. This information will help us determine how to continue to pay our employees -- based on the market. 

I am committed to using the study results to bring employee pay in line with the market as part of our Fiscal Year 24-25 budget, which we will begin planning for in early 2024. 

I appreciate our employees’ and the community’s patience as we do our due diligence to make our employees even more proud to work for the Bull City."

- City Manager Wanda Page

Original source can be found here.