Two different proposals for how to distribute raises to Pine Bluff city employees remain on the table after Thursday’s special Pine Bluff City Council Ways and Means Committee.
The full council is expected to make a decision at its next regular meeting, 5:30 p.m. Monday in the council chambers at the civic complex.
Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. proposes a 4.1 percent raise for the majority of full-time city employees; an 8 percent raise for police sergeants and lieutenants; and a 5.5 percent raise for minimum wage employees.
Alderman Thelma Walker and Alderman Irene Holcomb propose a flat, $1,800 raise across the board for all city employees.
Both proposals would also apply to the salaries of elected officials.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Also on Thursday, four organizations representing the police and fire departments submitted a letter to the city council asking that the amount of the raises given to public safety employees total $600,000, referencing a figure that was stated frequently by city officials during the campaign to pass the five-eighths-cent city sales tax that was approved by voters in February 2011.
Redus disputes this analysis, saying that the stated figure was always “up to $600,000.”
Reports in The Commercial on presentations made by city officials during the tax campaign do not include the “up to,” and neither does an article from the same time period in a different newspaper, said LaRon Edwards, an engineer with the Pine Bluff Fire and Emergency Services Department.
Edwards urged the council to “stand on the word of the administration” and designate $600,000 for public safety raises, speaking on behalf of the four public safety employee organizations.
“Not only did we support this tax, but asked our friends, neighbors, family members and the citizens of Pine Bluff to do so also,” Edwards said in his address to the committee. “We stood on street corners and intersections, posted signs in our yards and encouraged everyone to trust our city leaders in this endeavor by supporting this tax initiative; and the citizens that pay our salaries and rely on us daily went to the polls and voted in favor of the tax under the pretense that public safety employees would receive a raise with $600,000 earmarked strictly for that purpose.”
Officer David Ellington, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, also spoke and urged the council to provide the $600,000 in raises.
“When I was growing up, if you shook a man’s hand and told him you were going to do something, that’s what you tried to do,” Ellington said.
City Finance Department Director Steve Miller provided the committee with calculations of how much money the city would spend on the two different proposals:
• Under Walker and Holcomb’s proposal for the flat $1,800 raises, $648,490 would be spent on the public safety employees
• And under Redus’ proposal for the percentage-based raises, $572,628 would be spent on the public safety employees.
The numbers are larger than estimates previously made by Miller and reported in The Commercial because Miller said these estimates include the full monetary impact of the raises. When an employee’s salary is raised, the city also has to make higher contributions for retirement, Medicare and holiday pay. Those associated costs are reflected in the figures, which also include non-uniformed employees for both the police and fire departments.
Miller also provided a calculation of how much the two proposals would cost for providing the raises to all city employees:
• Under Walker and Holcomb’s proposal for the flat, $1,800 raises, the city would spend $890,761
• And under Redus’ proposal for the percentage-based raises, the city would spend $740,038.
Redus spoke in favor of his proposal, explaining his reasoning as an effort to fulfill the “up to $600,000” campaign promise, while also providing all city employees with a raise after they have gone without for two years.
“I think the budget that’s being presented is a fair and balanced budget to each and every employee in this city,” Redus said.
Redus urged the council to be conservative in its budget, emphasizing that the economic climate is still uncertain at national, state and local level. He discouraged them from dipping into the reserve fund to add to the budget’s expenses.
Alderman Wayne Easterly said that he would be supporting the mayor’s proposal. Regarding the $600,000 figure, Easterly said it was based on projections as to what the new five-eighths-cent sales tax would bring in. Now that the the tax is in place, it is not bringing in as much money as expected, and the raise amount must be adjusted accordingly, Easterly said.
Walker said she proposed the flat raise because she felt it was most equitable and that the lowest paid employees deserve the same raises as the highest paid employees.
The proposed budget the city council is currently working with was balanced using Redus’ proposal, so if the $1,800 raise proposal is adopted at Monday’s council meeting, the budget will have to be adjusted to make up for the $150,722 difference.
Miller provided the aldermen with a list of items they could consider cutting to offset the added costs, include removing positions; eliminating jobs; cutting the city’s contribution to the part-time elected officials’ group insurance and retirement pay; and shifting a federal transit grant to the street department.
At Thursday’s meeting, Walker and Holcomb also stood by several other changes they have proposed to the mayor’s budget — such as increasing salaries for District Court Division II, reducing the raise amount for the internal auditor and increasing the salary for the assistant city attorney. Those items and others are also expected to be voted on by the full council on Monday.