By Jon A. Brake

Better check hell...

The Manhattan City Commission voted down a City employee pay raise by a 3-2 vote. ...if hell didn't freeze over, it must have had frost.

The Commissioners (Ed Klimek, Mark Taussig and Brad Everett) were not upset with employees getting a raise but the total would have gone over the 3% that the Commission had put in the Budget. And staff could not tell how much it would be.

The Commissioners were also looking at top employees receiving $4,500 a year for a car allowance.

The Ordinance called for a 2.5% economic adjustment and merit increases up to 1.5%.

At right is a list of City employees and their wage range. This document was not in the packet sent to the Media but was sent to the Commissioners. The Free Press is running it as it did with the School District and County. Many names were removed because of space.