For city employees, pay raises still on hold

Hampton to shift $1.3M from ‘departmental savings’ to cover year-end staff bonuses

HAMPTON — A 3% pay raise for city employees is still in limbo, but Hampton has shaken out $1.3 million from its piggy bank to cover staff bonuses this year.

Hampton City Council passed a resolution Wednesday to shift money from the city’s committed fund balance to cover a proposed one-time $500 bonus for full-time employees and $250 for part-time staff, City Manager Mary Bunting said.

“We have not given raises from July 1 to Dec. 30. I really want to do something for the workforce,” Bunting said.

“It’s just intended to be a flat bonus to help people.”

The surplus comes from some $2 million in “departmental savings” — city departments trimmed their budgets throughout the last fiscal cycle, which included the first few months of the pandemic.

The council OK’d putting a percentage of those savings — some operational, other salaries — into a special account used to invest in the workforce, technology or in this case bonuses, she said.

Annual staff raises, a recurring expense, will be revisited in February, Bunting said. By then, Hampton will have six months of revenues since July 1 to compare, plus the projections for real estate growth from the city’s coming land book and how that affects the next budget cycle. That report from the city assessor is expected Jan. 27.

Hampton also will have the figures from the Dec. 5 collections on residential, commercial and personal property taxes. Those numbers do not come in until the end of the month.

“We want to make sure not only can we afford it this year, but (that) the assessments don’t tank or something like that causing a problem,” she said. “I’m not overly worried about that, because the housing market has been so strong, but there will be some commercial assessments that undoubtedly will be impacted.”

Hampton’s approved a $516 million budget for the current fiscal year that assumed anticipated revenues before the pandemic.

To offset the uncertainty of incoming revenues when everything shut down, Bunting laid out a plan to freeze $12 million in spending. It included a hold on 3% salary increases and nonessential spending, including new hires and capital expenditures.

The city has continued to provide services to its residents and has avoided furloughs or layoffs.

Karl Daughtrey, the city’s finance director, could not factor in the most recent property tax collections figures when he gave an update in November on the city’s revenue outlook since the pandemic began.

His report looked at yearto-date revenue through Sept. 30. Overall, Hampton is off its mark by about $1 million, a decline that Daughtrey said is not as bad as the $20 million the city had anticipated. The missing revenue is primarily driven in the city’s meals, lodging, and admissions taxes, which took a dive during the pandemic, as expected when businesses, hotels and entertainment venues closed for several weeks. Business licenses and sales and use taxes have fared better, he said.

“Grocery store sales are up 42% compared to last year. While people are not eating as much at restaurants, they are going to the grocery stores,” Daughtrey said. “The other thing that we see is that your big box, home improvement stores sales are up. People are doing projects, special things, during this pandemic.”