Springdale to raise municipal wages, cites competition

SPRINGDALE — Some city employees might see more money in their paychecks next year. The City Council will begin hearing budget requests from department heads this week.

The city commissioned a compensation study this year, said Wyman Morgan, director of administration and finance. “We do it every four to six years to see how we compare with the other cities in the market in Northwest Arkansas,” he said.

Morgan said some positions in just about every department could get a pay increase, but the amounts will vary, depending on the job and the employee’s qualifications. The city will make the adjustments rather than providing step raises for all employees, he said.

Eighty percent of the city’s budget goes to employee costs, including salaries and benefits, Morgan said. The city will spend $36.8 million on personnel this year and $39.5 million is slated for 2019.

Council members will review budget requests from department heads in meetings Nov. 19 and Nov. 29. The mayor must present a budget to the City Council on or before Dec. 1, and council members have until Feb. 1 to approve a spending budget.

The additional money for employee costs will be the product of how the council allocates total funding, said Mayor Doug Sprouse.

The city collects two 1 percent sales taxes, Morgan said. One was extended by voters in February and pays off the 2018 bond issue.

The second pays off the 2012 bond, puts 50 percent of the total tax collection into the city’s general operating fund and puts what remains in a capital improvement fund.

The second tax earned the city $2.5 million for the first 10 months of 2018, Morgan said. Sprouse said he will ask the council to consider increasing the percentage going into the general fund to 60 percent or 65 percent, leaving 35 percent or 40 percent for the capital improvement fund.

“We’ve done it before, and we always get it back to 50 percent,” Sprouse said. “We are committed to bringing the employees up to the market compensation.”

The city needs to offer competitive wages, Morgan explained. As the workforce dwindles, there are more jobs than people and more competition for those people.

“It takes a lot to train an individual and get him comfortable in the position, just to have them leave for a similar position that pays more somewhere else in Northwest Arkansas,” Morgan said.

“With police and firemen, it’s a matter of public safety,” he said. “If you lose 10 or 15 or more a year, it’s a burden on the department, harder on the rest of the guys.”

In addition, the city will hire six firefighters for Station 7, which is slated to open in July. The Parks Department will need more employees to maintain the new Shaw Family Park, in the northwestern part of the city. The opening of the C.L. “Charlie” and Willie George Park and the growing trail system also add maintenance responsibilities.

“Most of the money they need goes to labor,” Morgan said. “They’ve got the supplies and equipment, but they’ve got to pay the employees to do the work.”

The city typically has a $50 million to $55 million operating budget, which comes from sales taxes, Morgan said. The 2019 budget could be more because of increased collections.

Over the past 12 months, the city got $670,000 more from the 1 percent tax dedicated to the general fund than during the previous year, Morgan reported. The city collected about $14.5 million in 2017.

Returns from sales taxes paid to the city and Washington and Benton counties is up about $1.4 million, so far this year. Morgan said that would be enough to fund the pay raises.

The city spent $2 million from the capital improvement fund in 2018, with $5 million dedicated to 30 other projects, Morgan reported. Those projects range from $2,000 to complete the trailhead for the Razorback Greenway at Sanders Avenue to $500,000 for new patrol cars for the Police Department, he said.

The city manages $160 million from a bond issue passed by voters in February; 85 percent of that money must be spent within 36 months. So far, the city has spent $5.5 million, Morgan said.

The bulk of the bond money spent has paid for the design of planned street and construction projects. Residents should see construction on these projects begin in 2019.

Another big-ticket item for the 2019 budget will be replacing control systems for traffic signals throughout the city. The computer-controlled systems, housed in silver boxes alongside intersections, regulate the changing lights to fit the traffic, said Brad Baldwin, the city’s director of engineering and public works.

The systems must be replaced because the company that made them no longer supports the systems or supplies repair parts. The city has 77 intersections needing upgrades, which will be done over several years. Baldwin said he asked for $450,000 in the 2019 budget to start the work.

“And this is our guys doing the work, replacing the equipment,” Baldwin said.