PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WVEC) — More than 1,000 City of Portsmouth employees could receive $1,000 bonuses from extra money in the city's general fund.
Portsmouth City Council will vote on allocating $1.9 million for holiday bonuses Tuesday night.
However, the Portsmouth school division asked the city council for the same amount - $1.9 million - for teacher and staff raises in May. City Council did not approve this request, but did provide about $400,000 for security improvements throughout the school system.
Portsmouth councilwoman Lisa Lucas-Burke expected unanimous approval of the ordinance to give city employees holiday bonuses. She said the city employees deserve bonuses with the hard work they've done for the city.
“The employees are going to appreciate the additional funding which will help them do some great things for their families," she said.
Lucas-Burke said this extra money in the general fund was not anticipated during the budgeting process earlier this year. Plus, bonuses are easier to give than raises.
“A bonus is something that’s just a one-time thing, so if we had funds to be able to give to our school employees a one-time bonus we would definitely be on board with that too," she said. "But a raise is something you have to fund year after year, and we just weren't sure if we’d be able to generate or find the $1.9 million for years down the line."
She said the idea of giving bonuses to school employees rather than city employees 'never came up in the conversation,' but said she'd like to think about budgeting for teacher bonuses next year.'
“If we’re not able to give raises continuously throughout the year, I would definitely be on board with setting aside some funds for them to get a bonus as well," Lucas-Burke said.
Portsmouth Schools did give teachers and staff a 2 percent raise after city council did not provide the requested $1.9 million in the spring. The raises were mostly paid for by new sales tax revenue and through cutting teacher and staff positions.