Several changes to the mayor’s proposed 2012 budget were recommended by the Pine Bluff City Council Ways and Means Committee on Monday, including paying all city employees a flat, across-the-board raise instead of the percentage-based raises proposed by the mayor.
Alderman Thelma Walker proposed and Alderman Irene Holcomb seconded the following changes to the mayor’s proposed budget:
• paying all city employees a flat, $1,800, raise rather than Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr.’s proposal to pay a 4.1 percent raise to the majority of city employees, an 8 percent raise to police sergeants and lieutenants and a 5.5 percent raise for minimum-wage employees
• increasing the salaries of employees for District Court Division II to the same rate as their Division I counterparts, who are paid by the county.
• not giving internal auditor Gina Devers a 11 percent raise, (from $42,210 to $46,845) as proposed by the mayor, but rather giving her the same raise as the other employees.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
• increasing the salary for assistant city attorney Joe Childers from $58,491 to $65,095, as compared to the mayor’s recommendation to increase his salary to $60,889.
Walker’s proposals must be approved by the full council. Redus argued against each of Walker’s proposals during the committee meeting.
There was no mention of the Fraternal Order of Police Pine Bluff Lodge No. 2’s request that a full $600,000 go toward raises for public safety employees, which was the figure stated frequently by city officials during the campaign to pass the tax. Raises for all city employees were not part of the platform during the tax campaign.
The full city council was unable to hold a final vote on the 2012 budget Monday because the Economic and Community Development Committee has not yet met to consider the budgets that fall under its governance. The committee expects to meet Wednesday, but has not yet set a time to meet.
The Ways and Means Committee has called a special meeting for 4 p.m. Monday, Dec. 12, when all council members have been invited to discuss the budget.
The committee will also discuss how to pay for several capital improvement projects and grants that are on the city’s wish list. Redus provided the aldermen Monday with a list of the projects and their associated costs. According to the Redus administration’s calculations, not all of the projects can be fully funded out of the projected tax revenues from the five-eighths-cent tax receipts for 2011.
The list includes a $12,500 grant to juvenile court; a $43,000 grant match for a the Grider Field Airport terminal remodel project; $87,000 in repairs and improvements to the Chester Hynes and Merrill community centers; $500,000 to replenish the reserve funds taken out of the account in 2011; and $500,000 to make the 2012 contribution to the reserve fund.
The breakdown provided to the aldermen by Redus shows that the projected tax receipts are expected to fall about $33,000 short of being able to fund all of the projects listed at those costs.