Lubbock Mayor Glen Robertson Explains Reasoning for Amendment Disagreement and City Employee Pay Raise [AUDIO]

On Friday's edition of Lubbock's First News, Lubbock Mayor Glen Robertson spoke with Chad Hasty and Rex Andrew about the latest issues coming out of city council.

One of the big issues brought up in last night's meeting was the final approval of the city budget and a tax rate increase.  However, there was a bit of "controversy" with an amendment brought up by District 5 councilwoman Karen Gibson concerning storm water fess and street maintenance. Mayor Robertson was the sole dissenting vote for the amendment, and he still disagrees with the amendment today.

"[Gibson and I] both agree completely that street maintenance should not be hid in a storm water fee. I didn't like the fact that the first time the public saw this, that we were going to raise their taxes next year by almost a penny, was last night and that the citizens had no input."

Another issue brought up at last night's council meeting was a 3% raise for city employees. Robertson emphasized that this raise was not based on merit, but was based on an increases in the  cost of living. He added that more consideration needs to be taken in these sorts of raises, and that employees would be looking for jobs outside of Lubbock without these raises.

Mayor Robertson also took listener's calls concerning raises for city employees, tax increases, and the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance.