In a mostly empty hearing room, Peter Marino asks the state's personnel director to grant pay raises to the director's of state exectuive departments. Photo by Steve Klamkin, WPRO News.
By Steve Klamkin and Kim Kalunian, WPRO News
A brief hearing was held Friday morning before the state's personnel director regarding proposed pay raises for Governor Lincoln Chafee's cabinet members.
The proposal would give directors of the state's executive departments a six-percent pay increase over the next year, starting in June with a three-percent bump.
Chafee's Office of Management and Budget chief, Peter Marino, presented his case to the personnel director, saying that these employees had gone too long without pay raises.
J. Michael Downey, President of Council 94 AFSMCE, AFL-CIO, Rhode Island's largest union, was the only other person to testify. He said the members of his union do the actual work of the state, and should be remembered when it comes time to renegotiate contracts.
The results of the hearing will now be turned over to the General Assembly. If the legislature does not squash the pay raises, the raises will automatically go into effect in 30 days.
