NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Mike Osborne) -- One of the committee’s Nashville Vice Mayor Jim Shulman convened last year to look at the city’s most pressing problems has released its findings.
It comes as no surprise that the committee asked to take a look at city worker pay is recommending significant salary increases. The panel consists of five council members and six citizens.
Committee Chair Councilman Bob Nash says the committee found compensation for Metro employees well below that of cities of comparable size. But he also warns increased pay will be competing with other outstanding needs.
“People want their sidewalks. We got to do better with transit. Schools need more resources. So we’re competing with a lot of very serious, legitimate interests.”
Nash says the pay imbalance began during the Great Recession, but also fell prey to later problems, including a failure to raise property taxes, ballooning city debt, turnover in the Mayor’s office and the campaign for a failed $5 billion transit plan.
