Council settles on 5% non-union boost

FORT MADISON – The City of Fort Madison sent a message to non-union employees on Wednesday. Over the last three years, they’ve earned a 15% increase in base pay.
In a testament to the passion for Fort Madison employees, department heads, city councilors, and city staff were full-throated in not only protecting valued employees, but also trying to protect the budget.
The council voted 5-2 to approve a third straight 5% increase for non-union employees as part of the 2026-27 fiscal year budget. That vote was after a 3% increase was narrowly defeated 4-3.
Councilor Matt Emmett made the motion for the 3% increase because he said there are too many unknowns at both local and state levels to commit to a third 5% increase.
Council chambers were full of city employees, mostly non-union, as the City Council, City Manager Laura Liegois, Mayor Melinda Blind, and department heads haggled over the $52,000 that represents the difference in the 3% and 5% bumps.
It should also be noted that the city’s projected budget has a surplus of  $130,000, but that includes a doubling of the utility franchise fees that residents pay on their utility usage from 1.5% to 3%.
“I’m happy for every single employee in that room,” said Emmett after the meeting. “But I don’t think we made a fiscally responsible decision here tonight.”
City Manager Laura Liegois defended the budget she put in front of the council after several months of budget committee meetings that included Councilors Rusty Andrews, Angela Roller, and Emmett.
“You know, I guess I’m hired to be your city manager and I’ve done the job I was asked to do,” she said.
“I went to the committee. I did the process. I provided you all the things you wanted to make a decision, and we got to here, and I presented. So, I need a decision.”
The budget committee recommended a 3% increase, a number Andrews said he threw out to the committee. However, when seeing what was happening with other union employees in the police and fire department, Andrews pushed to bump that number.
Liegois said with external pressures from the state to cap growth at 2% generally, she brought a budget to the council that was within those restrictions. New City Finance Director Doug Solestad was not in attendance but was at Monday’s special budget meeting.

Emmett started the ball rolling on the discussion of the wage increase, which prompted the Wednesday meeting. Andrews had brought up a bigger increase for non-union staff at Monday’s budget meeting.
“I don’t think that there is anybody up here or anybody in a leadership position that doesn’t want to do everything we can for the hard-working men and women of this city,” Emmett said.
“But this picture is presented too rosy. It requires a 1.5% increase in the franchise tax and a $1 million bond to get here. We do not have the money without raising the taxes.”
He said the whole budget cycle was out of whack in requiring the city to make decisions when the state hasn’t made decisions, which could throw everything into a completely unfair position for the city.”
The city is also in the final stages of fire and police union negotiations. Those negotiations are not a matter of public record while underway.
Andrews said the two things that stand out in city government are fire and police.
“How do we get new income to fix this? That’s what we haven’t found.”
He and Roller agreed that they don’t know what the future holds, and Roller added that the city needed to be fiscally responsible. She said she was in favor of the 3% until she saw the number of employees in the room and heard from department heads Mark Bousselot, public works director, and Fire Chief Chad Hannum.
All of Bousselot’s staff are non-union. Hannum has seven non-union staff in administration with Captains, Lieutenants, and himself.
In a weird twist, councilman Jerry Sparrow was one of the three who voted for the 3% but said he wanted to do more. When that motion failed, he made the motion for the 5% increase. The debate in front of the council was for 3% or 5%.
Councilman Dustin Yager kicked out a bunch of statistics showing that the spending power of the staff’s last two raises still gives them buying power over the cost of inflation and said the city just can’t afford three straight 5% increases.
Yager and Emmett were the two dissenting votes against the 5% increase. Nicole Merschman, Andrews, Roller, and Rick Thele voted against the 3% increase. Sparrow was a yes vote on both measures.