PARAMOUNT : New Budget Gives City Employees Pay Raises

City employees will receive their first pay raises in three years under a $25.2-million budget recently adopted by the City Council.

The 1994-95 spending plan guarantees salary increases between 3% and 10% for all 104 full-time employees except department heads. Part-time salaries will increase by 3%.

Budget reductions led to the cancellation of a free daily bus trip for residents to Seal Beach and the layoff of a gang-prevention counselor. Paramount also replaced its Saturday shuttle service that transported seniors to out-of-town medical appointments with a less-expensive taxi-voucher system.

The city will spend $6.5 million on public safety, up 5% from last year to cover higher Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department fees.

Sales tax revenue grew $598,000 this year to $4.7 million, which helped balance the budget, said Richard Leahy, deputy city manager. The new taxes were generated mostly from a new shopping center anchored by the area’s first Wal-Mart store at 14501 Lakewood Blvd.

The budget is 25% less than last year’s $33-million allocation. The difference is attributable to $8 million in federal and state bond money that Paramount received to build an automobile underpass below the train tracks on Alondra Boulevard, Leahy said.