Mayor Dan Sullivan authorized 3 percent pay raises for 162 city executives Wednesday at the same time that he says he is meeting with city unions seeking cost concessions.

The raises are effective Sept. 13.

The action did not sit well with Anchorage Assembly chairman Dick Traini or some city union leaders.

"Now is not the time to be giving pay increases when you've got a potential $18 million deficit, when we're talking about people cutting back their workweeks" and when the city is facing other cutbacks, Traini said.

The mayor said in a memo to executives announcing the raises that the executives took 5 percent pay cuts last year, and this is to partially make up for the reduction.

The executive ranks getting the raises include department heads, their deputies, some supervisors, and other staff including people like herself, said mayoral spokeswoman Sarah Erkmann. The mayor, whose pay is set by the Salaries and Emoluments Commission, will not get a raise.

The administration says all employees except executives have received salary increases since July 1, 2009. Members of all bargaining units except the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union got raises of about 3 percent in January this year.

The executive raises will not affect departments' 2010 budgets because all departments except the Assembly are spending less than projected, the mayor said. The added cost will be $129,500 for this year, and $456,250 for 2011.

Traini said he's not giving the raise to the Assembly's executive employees -- including the city clerk and her deputy, the ombudsman and the Assembly attorney -- because it's not an appropriate time to do so.

At a news conference Wednesday, the mayor said the city could be facing a multimillion-dollar gap for the 2011 budget between revenues and expenses. He said even if there's a property tax increase to cover inflation, about 3 percent, the city will still be $18 million short.

He said he's talking to city union leaders to see if they are willing to make contract concessions like shorter workweeks or pay freezes to save money.

After the press conference, he signed the memo announcing 3 percent raises for executives, Erkmann said. He didn't mention it during the news conference because the city's employee relations director didn't bring it up to the mayor until afterward, Erkmann said.

"The timing was just coincidence," she said.

"Obviously that's a very confusing message for municipal employees right now, to ask one group of employees for concessions while giving back raises to another group," said Derek Hsieh, president of the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association, one of the city's largest unions.

Rick Traini, executive director of the Teamster's Union, said, "We're disappointed."

The Teamsters represent bus drivers and Solid Waste Services drivers, and a few other employees.

"Reward employees at the top level on the backs of the people who do the day-to-day blue-collar work," he said.