(Photo by Shelley Hanson) Paden City Council holds the first reading of an ordinance that calls for increasing the municipal fee by 15 percent across the board.

Paden City Council held the first reading of a proposed ordinance to increase the municipal service fee by 15 percent across the board.

Councilman Bill Bell was the lone vote against the measure during council’s June 2 meeting.

It was noted the proposed increase would equate to an additional $2.25 fee hike on residents’ bills. The current municipal fee for residents is $15 per month. With the increase, the fee for residents would increase to $17.25 per month.

Mayor Clyde Hochstrasser said the city’s coffers are in need of more money.

“We haven’t had a municipal raise for a while. This is basically an inflationary fee to help keep up with rising costs,” he said. “We made it a percentage fee so we would not have to make a large increase at one time.”

The second and final reading of the proposed ordinance is slated for the next council meeting set for 7 p.m. July 8.

According to the city’s codified ordinances, the municipal service fee is for “police protection, street lighting and street maintenance.”

Paden City Police Department Chief Anthony Lauer said his proposed rate fee increase was declined by council last month. He was proposing a 50 percent increase to raise additional funds to hire another officer. However, council decided that the rate was too high, he said.

He noted the city’s newest ordinance’s rate fee would not be used to hire an additional officer, just to add money to the city’s general fund.

“It will provide the general fund extra money that will be used across multiple departments,” Lauer said. “If the police department needed to purchase something outside of its budgeted amount it could request money from the general fund. But the money is not dedicated to any one department.”

Lauer said his department currently has two full-time officers and himself, making it a department of three. He said there is a call list of part-time officers available, but the department’s budget does not have enough money to provide 24/7 coverage.