Edgar McGuire, a member of the Riverside City Council, attempted to get a 3% raise for city employees at the regular meeting of the city council on Monday, July 19.

He failed.

But at least four Riverside employees will receive a 2% pay increase, retroactive to July 1, as a result of the city council’s tight 3-2 vote on Monday.

Following a discussion of nearly half an hour on proposed pay increases, McGuire made a motion to approve a 3% increase. His motion was not seconded by any of the four other council persons, which canceled the action. Instead, a motion for a 2% increase by Andy Rodgers was seconded and passed by a 3-2 vote.

Rodgers, Kevin Mills and Lois Schneider voted in favor.

McGuire voted against the 2% increase because he preferred 3%.

“We’re talking about $100 a month. That’s all we’re talking about,” said McGuire, who noted that a fifth city office worker might be needed in the future because of a growing workload.

Also voting against the 2% increase was Tom Sexton, who did not seem convinced that any increase was in order.

“I’m hearing from a community that isn’t getting 3 to 5% (in annual raises),” Sexton said.

“We’ve got good employees,” he added.

None of the council members questioned the quality of job performances by the city’s employees. And that didn’t seem to be a factor. The lack of specific pay scales and formal employee evaluations and job descriptions did seem to be factors.

“We need to make sure this is a little more organized,” McGuire said.

The salary of city administrator Christine Yancey was determined in closed session.

Also at its meeting Monday:

The council approved to agreement contracts with Axiom Consultants of Iowa City. One of the agreements was a master services contract with Axiom and the other was for on-call engineering services. Fees will be determined by monthly invoices.

Two more pending agreements with Axiom, specifically addressing 3rd Street and Railroad Park capital improvement projects, is expected to be on the agenda at the council’s next meeting on August 2. The 3rd Street project would cost the city a lump sum of $133,100 or 9% of construction costs based on the winning bid, according to the proposed agreement. The Railroad Park’s proposed fees are $37,400 or 9% of construction costs.

The council approved five Community Beautification Incentive Program residential grants totaling $11,325, and one Business District grant for $5,593 to John Sojka.

The council tabled the awarding of a bid for sidewalk work on the corner of Cherry Lane and Kleopfer Avenue. Bidding for the work are Utzinger Epoxy and Concrete of Washington, and English River Concrete of Riverside.