Bonners Ferry Council  voted unanimously to renew the contract for its attorney and increased his pay by $24,000 for the year.

Council members John Langs, David Gray, Connie Wells and Chris Clark agreed to pay solicitor Timothy Wilson  $95,000 for 2009.  The previous five-year agreement gave Wilson $71,000 annually. 

In a related matter, city council agreed to give full-time employees a 40-cent-an-hour raise.

The issue of the city budget and if raises were possible came up with both votes. 

Langs stated that he thought more time was needed to evaluate the budget and that waiting until April would allow them to examine the economy’s effect on the budget and possibly impose a  higher than 40-cent-per-hour raise.

It was dicussed by the council members that the current raise had already been put into the budget.   Waiting to impose the raise until April would not be beneficial and all voted in favor for the 40-cent-an-hour increase.   A possible additional raise for full-time city employees will be revisited in April.