The Columbia Association board approved pay raises for association staffers for the 2014 fiscal year and voted in favor of discounted daily admissions for five of CA's least-utilized outdoor pools at its meeting Tuesday, Nov. 22.
The proposed 2014 budget will include a 3 percent increase in salaries and wages. Board members had debated various amounts, and also the possibility of putting a moratorium on pay raises for one year on staff members who make $80,000 and above.
In recent years the amount budgeted for pay increases has been 2.5 percent. But the economy since gotten healthier, board members said.
Voting in favor were Tom Coale of Dorsey's Search, Cynthia Coyle of Harper's Choice, Michael Cornell of River Hill, Phil Kirsch of Wilde Lake, Andrew Stack of Owen Brown, Suzanne Waller of Town Center and Shari Zaret of Kings Contrivance. Voting against were Ed Coleman of Long Reach, Alex Hekimian of Oakland Mills and Gregg Schwind of Hickory Ridge.
The five pools offering discounted daily admission will be Faulkner Ridge, Jeffers Hill, MacGill's Common, Running Brook and Talbott Springs. Locust Park had initially been listed instead of Running Brook.
The board chose only to do a trial run of allowing Columbia residents without CA memberships to use the pools for $4 for adults and $2 for children, opting against including discounted annual memberships to those five pools.
Voting in favor were Coleman, Coyle, Hekimian, Kirsch, Schwind and Stack. Voting against were Coale, Cornell, Waller and Zaret.
Also on Tuesday, the board did not vote on a proposed 10 percent discount on memberships for Columbia residents 65 and older to the association's pools, gyms and other facilities.
Board members suggested changes to the proposal, including a 15 or 20 percent discount only on new memberships, but no amendments passed. Further discussion will continue at the board's meeting next month.