Two-thirds of InMaricopa.com readers who responded to last week’s online poll question believe all city employees, not just police and firefighters, should be getting raises based on merit.

The question was: Should all city employees — besides police officers and firefighters — get raises based on merit?

Of the 232 who answered, 149 (64 percent) said yes; 72 (31 percent) said no and 11 (5 percent) said they weren’t sure.

Mayoral candidates Carl Diedrich and Christian Price agreed during a public forum Saturday that raises for all city employees should be based on merit.

City Manager Brenda Fischer said she was pleased the poll results indicate support from the community.

“I believe in tying performance to merit,” she said. “When I first started here (May 2011) I brought my philosophy and vision for tying increases to merit for all city employees.”

Fischer said that philosophy has been implemented with formal agreements, called memorandums of understanding, with the firefighters and police officers.

The Maricopa City Council approved a 2.5 percent immediate raise for police officers and merit raises beginning the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Salary agreements with police sergeants and firefighters were approved in 2011.

Fischer said the city is undergoing a compensation study that is currently scheduled to go to city council for consideration on Feb. 21.

She is proposing employees who meet expectations receive a 1 percent increase and those who go above and beyond expectations get 2.5 percent. Salaries for city employees have been frozen since 2009, she said.

She said the system of tying raises to annual cost of living, or COLA, increases does not give employees an incentive to improve and is not fiscally sound in a tough economy.