Pea Ridge City Council discusses salary for city clerk

PEA RIDGE — What began as a job “doing a little typing” 46 years ago grew and evolved as the city grew, resulting in Sandy Button holding three jobs with the city.

Button, first employed by Pea Ridge on Aug. 1, 1977, is the city clerk, office manager and court clerk. Although her salary has changed over the years, the salary for city clerk has stayed the same as the pay for the council members, currently $200 per meeting attended.

When the city signed up for the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System, which goes into effect July 1, it became apparent that a decision had to be made for Button, who, as an elected official as city clerk, can retire with half of her current salary.

“This was because of us going into APERS,” Mayor Nathan See said.

Button’s salary from city general is $76,560, according to the city salary schedule. She also receives $200 per City Council meeting attended as city clerk.

In 2000, Button moved to Rogers for a few years, during which time she was not city clerk. She was still a city employee and said she still attended the council meetings, took minutes, typed the minutes and the ordinances.

City Attorney Shane Perry said he has researched the state statute that deals with city clerks and said the statute wasn’t clear whether the retirement pay was discretionary or mandatory.

“We were looking for clarity,” Perry said, explaining that Button is at a point where she has to either elect to enroll in APERS or go for mandatory retirement pay. “It’s clearly more beneficial to her to have statutory retirement.”

“When she started in 1977, and then took on various roles, fast forward 47 years, … the way she is paid does not equitably match the way she spends her time, and that’s what this body has to clarify,” Perry said.

“In the past 15 years,” Button said, “my role as chief court clerk has been administrative.” She said having a deputy court clerk allows her to spend time on administration, bookkeeping and writing checks, work she says takes an entire day. She said there were 280 people attending court in the most recent session.

“I’m very proud of the fact that all of us, including the mayor, are hugely crosstrained. When people are out, you do the job you need to do,” she said. “Over the years, the clerk has became a huge, huge part of my job. It has evolved.”

“We help Tony [Townsend, city building official] with impact fees … work on street fund … about 18 bank accounts,” Button said, noting that when she first started, there were four bank accounts. She said Starla Billington, the city’s bookkeeper manages 30 bank accounts.

Questioned by council member Jeff Neil, Button estimated about 80% of her time is spent on city clerk responsibilities.

“I can’t brag any more about our people. Everyone works very hard,” Button said.

As the city grew, the work responsibilities increased.

In 1977, the city’s population was between 1,088 (1970) and 1,488 (1980).

The mayor was Cotton Carter. There were two other city employees in City Hall — Thelma Hall and Billie Hickman.

In 1977, Act 332 was passed organizing city courts and requiring any city that had a police department to also have a court. Button got in on the ground floor.

There were no computers. Much of the work was done either by hand or on typewriters.

Button, who works four days a week, attended and later led training for city court clerks across the state and has spent Fridays assisting other cities with consulting and training. She has worked with Lowell, Gravette, Centerton, Bethel Heights and helped set up a virtual justice computer program that is used across the state.

In 1984, Button was elected city recorder/treasurer (a position that became city clerk as the city’s population expanded).

In the early days, court was held at night. Then it increased to one half day per month, and now court is held twice a month. In 1996, a deputy court clerk was hired part time.

Button served as president of the Arkansas City Court Clerk’s Association two terms from 1994 to 1996. She was awarded Court Clerk of the Year in 1999.

In January 2008, the city court became the Pea Ridge division of the Bentonville District Court.

“This will not be something we will ever do again,” the mayor said.

“I’m very excited we’re offering APERS to our employees now. We wanted it for so long,” Button said, adding that she can not do both — APERS and the elected official retirement.

Council members discussed several possibilities of clarifying what the salary of the city clerk should be. They were presented results of a survey of city clerk salaries from around the state, none of which took longevity into account, Button said.

“We want something logical and fair that is easy to explain to the citizens,” said Jeff Neil, council member.

“When she started in 1977, and then took on various roles, fast forward 47 years, … the way she is paid does not equitably match the way she spends her time, and that’s what this body has to clarify.”

— Pea Ridge City Attorney Shane Perry speaking about City Clerk Sandy Button