Come July 1, some non-union Oxford Village employees will receive pay raises, but officials didn’t arrive at that decision without some spirited debate.

Last week, council voted 3-1 to raise the wages of its part-time police officers and Assistant Village Manager Drew Benson from $17 to $18 per hour.

None of the council members had an issue with the pay hike for the cops, which is expected to cost the village an additional $5,756 for the year, according to figures provided by Manager Joseph Madore.

“I think that’s in line with what everyone else is making (in northern Oakland County and southern Lapeer County),” said Councilwoman Maureen Helmuth.

But there was strong disagreement over Benson’s raise.

Helmuth, who casting the lone dissenting vote, was dead-set against it for a number of reasons. She pointed out the assistant manager position was “never posted” and “never funded.”

“I don’t know how he became the assistant manager because when he was hired, he was assistant to the manager,” Helmuth said. “The fact that he goes by assistant manager now is not based on anything this board did.”

Benson began working for the village on June 26, 2017. He was brought in by Jaymes Vettraino, who was the interim manager at the time. Benson’s original title was assistant interim manager.

“Technically, there was no, I guess, official decision (on the title),” Benson explained to this reporter. “I was going off of what the manager-in-place’s title was.”

He continued working for the village under that title when the second interim manager, Evan Teich, started last August.

When Joseph Madore came aboard in December 2017 to fill the manager position on a permanent basis, the interim part of Benson’s title was dropped.

“When we (got) a full-time village manager, it didn’t make sense to (keep interim in the title),” Benson said. “Really, this is more of an assistant-to position, but for the sake of brevity we just kind of went with assistant manager . . . There was no official change in duties or any of that sort of stuff.”

“To be honest with you, when I first came here, I didn’t expect to be here this long. (Vettraino) told me six to eight weeks. A year later, here we are,” Benson noted.

Benson, whose maternal grandfather, Marvin Curtis, served as Oxford Village president in 1977, works part-time for the village three days a week, averaging about 30 hours.

In addition to never being advertised, Helmuth had a problem with the starting pay rate for the assistant manager.

“I do not feel it is deserving of $17 an hour. That’s my opinion,” she said.

Since Helmuth thought the existing wage was already too high, she told her fellow council members, “I’m not interested in giving that position a pay increase.”

Councilman Erik Dolan disagreed and championed giving Benson a raise.

He called Benson an “invaluable resource” and indicated he’s “done research that far exceeds . . . what previous village management was even capable of or what any other employee” can do.

“I think he is worthy of a merit raise,” Dolan said.

Village President Sue Bossardet agreed with Dolan. “I see the work product that he produces,” she said. “I do feel that he’s a valuable asset to the village.”

Bossardet believes an assistant manager is needed make phone calls and do other legwork in order to free up the manager to focus on handling village business.

She noted the lack of an assistant manager prior to Benson is why the village “had previous management working 22 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Despite the fact he made the motion and voted for Benson’s pay hike, later in the meeting during council comments, Dolan announced, “I don’t want to see anymore raises come before (council).”

“I’m going to vote no on everything,” the councilman said. “I’m going to vote no on all discretionary spending unless it’s significantly warranted and required.”

In Dolan’s view, there are “constant requests” related to wages and equipment, and it needs to stop.

“There’s a lot of me, me, me,” he said.

“We continuously go back to the residents for taxes and for money and the question is what are they getting for it? And I don’t have an answer for them,” Dolan continued. “We’re here for (the residents). We’re not here as a jobs program. The jobs program is a result of the needed services for the residents. I think you can treat your employees well and we have, but keep in mind, the mission is to take care of the residents and we’re not doing that, I don’t think.”