Columbus, Georgia, Consolidated Government v. Schmidt

Fletcher, Presiding Justice.

The issue in this appeal is whether a Columbus ordinance that provides for educational incentive pay applies to employees who acquired their educational degrees prior to the ordinance’s effective date. The trial court adopted a “common sense interpretation” of the ordinance and held that its effective date applied solely to the employees’ eligibility for the incentive pay and not to the date that they attained their educational degrees. Applying the ordinary rules of statutory construction, we hold that the plain language of the ordinance applies only to existing…