Rogers officers due stipends of $5,000

114 lawmen to get one-time payment

ROGERS — Full-time city police officers will receive a $5,000 stipend.

The City Council unanimously amended the 2022 budget to receive $667,430 — $620,000 for salaries and wages and $47,430 for FICA expenses, according to the resolution.

Police Chief Jonathan Best said 114 officers will get the one-time stipend.

Best said the state authorized a one-time stipend for law enforcement officers and the council was voting to accept the money from the state for it to be added to the budget.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on March 8 signed into law Senate Bill 103, known as the Arkansas Full-Time Law Enforcement Officer Salary Stipend Act of 2022.

Under SB103, which was sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, full-time certified city and county law enforcement officers and fulltime certified state Department of Corrections probation and parole officers are set to receive a one-time stipend of $5,000.

“There’s not been a session of the Legislature in history to my knowledge that has done more for law enforcement than this session of the Legislature,” Hutchinson said at the time.

Eligible full-time law enforcement officers employed as of July 1, and officers hired after July 1 but on or before Jan. 31, 2023, who meet the eligibility requirements are entitled to the one-time stipends, according to the finance department’s legislative impact statement on the law.

Also, council members voted to allow Rogers Water Utilities to accept a recommendation for money from the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, which would provide financial assistance for specific improvements to the municipal sewer system.

Brent Dobler, utilities superintendent, said the commission would administer the money through a clean water state revolving fund.

“The Arkansas Department of Agriculture have offered to recommend to the ANRC funding for the project in the form of a loan from the Arkansas Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund in the amount of $31,246,250 with an anticipated term of 20 years,” the resolution states.

A clean water state revolving fund is a federal-state partnership that provides financing for community infrastructure projects related to water quality, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website.

The application will lock in an interest rate of 1.5%, even if the rates go up in the future, Dobler said.

In other business, the city hired J-Quad and Associates of Plano, Texas, to do an analysis of impediments to fair housing in the city.

The analysis is required by U.S. Housing and Urban Development regulations for the city to continue receiving federal Community Development Block Grant money.

The resolution allows the city to hire J-Quad and Associates at $14,875 or less.