Arkansas-side Board to discuss competing pay plans
Workshop is slated for this afternoon
At least two plans for paying police and firefighters will be on the table during a Texarkana, Ark., Board of Directors workshop today, a day after the Board discussed one of the proposals in a special meeting.
Board members and Mayor Allen Brown expressed a sense of urgency regarding the ongoing pay parity crisis during Wednesday’s meeting, which focused on a competitive pay ordinance sponsored by Assistant Mayor Linda Teeters.
Brown asked for today’s workshop, saying he had been working on his own proposal and that the issue is “by far the most serious thing” the Board currently faces.
Teeters agreed, saying she had called the special meeting in hopes of resolving the matter before a judge’s ruling in a pending lawsuit that could prove financially disastrous for the city.
“We better try to fix it now,” Teeters said.
In 1996, Arkansas-side voters approved a pair of quarter-cent sales taxes to fund keeping firefighter and police officer salaries equal to their Texas-side counterparts’, which is known as pay parity. Pay parity has been a continually contentious issue in the city since, pitting city officials who say the taxes are insufficient against employees and citizens who claim the funds have been mismanaged.
In December 2017, a group of city residents filed suit against then-Mayor Ruth Penney-Bell and City Manager Kenny Haskin to force Police Department pay parity with a court ruling.
The city has argued that the parity taxes are unconstitutional, and Miller County Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson may rule that they can no longer be collected. Last year the taxes generated about $2.26 million in revenue.
On Wednesday, the Board heard a first reading of Teeters’ ordinance. It sets out contingencies for increasing firefighter and police officer pay by different amounts, depending on how much sales tax revenue the city collects and how much money is available in the city’s general fund in a given year.
Unless the ordinance is removed from the agenda, a second reading will take place during the Board’s Aug. 5 regular meeting. An ordinance must be read in public three times before the Board may vote on it.
Teeters said she is committed to providing competitive pay by whatever responsible, legal means is available.
“I want it on record that this Board is making an effort,” Teeters said.
Without offering specifics, Brown said he saw flaws in Teeters’ proposal.
“I cannot support it in its entirety,” he said. “There’s some looseness in this ordinance that could get us right back where we started.”
Brown said he had met with the Texarkana Police Association, the lawsuits’ plaintiffs and the city finance director to try to find a solution, and he had a proposal ready. He did not offer any details but said it is imperative to bring a plan to the table the Board can agree on.
“We’re all in this together,” Brown said.
The workshop is scheduled for 4 p.m. today in City Hall, 216 Walnut St. It is open to the public.