Christmas comes early for one city employee

Christmas came early for one city employee this week. The Hot Springs Board of Directors raised more than a few eyebrows on Tuesday when it approved an $8,000 market-adjustment raise for the city attorney. We say the pay increase is ill-timed, given recent sales tax revenue decreases and the added burden of a water rate increase recently approved by the board.

To be clear: We don’t have any gripe about Brian Albright, personally, or his ability to do his job. No, this is about a financial decision of the board of directors when other city employees received only a modest 3-percent cost of living increase for 2018.

What message is the board sending to its citizenry and its employees? Are you saying their jobs are less valuable? Is their work subpar, when compared to Mr. Albright?

Mr. Albright’s salary has increased more than 15 percent from the $121,000 established by his October 2012 employment agreement. Per the agreement, he also receives a $7,800 annual vehicle allowance.

According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Right2Know database, Albright’s 2018 salary will exceed the 2017 salaries for city attorneys in North Little Rock; $133,974, Jacksonville;

$101,879, Conway; $101,493, Bryant; $85,945 and Benton; $69,999. Mr. Albright’s services are supplemented by the Arkansas Municipal League, which the city pays an annual service charge to represent it and its employees in lawsuits filed against the city.

Mayor Pat McCabe said Tuesday that Mr. Albright’s responsibilities and pay level, as they relate to other area city attorneys and attorneys in Hot Springs, informed the board’s decision.

“We felt a market adjustment was due as a result of a combination of factors,” Mayor McCabe said. “We wanted to make sure his salary was commensurate with his duties and responsibilities.”

The mayor said Albright’s purview isn’t limited to legal matters.

“We felt that his involvement in a number of areas this past year was quite strong,” he said. “He has a different role. While he’s city attorney, he does get involved in many operational issues for the other departments. His role is more expanded.”

Pardon us, mayor, but we would very much like to see an updated job description for Mr. Albright, if in fact he has a “more expanded” role. What exactly does that mean? Does he manage personnel? Does he run the controls at the water department? What, exactly, does he do that merits that large of a pay increase?

District 4 Director Larry Williams said the fact Mr. Albright is no longer Mountain Pine’s city attorney was also a consideration for the board.

Is it somehow the city of Hot Springs’ responsibility to reimburse Mr. Albright for his loss of income from another municipality?

We would remind readers that we reported just last month that the decline in September collections of the 1-cent sales tax Hot Springs levies in support of its General Fund put the total for the first three quarters of the year 0.21-percent behind last year’s pace.

But the thing that galls us the most about this sizable pay increase is the fact it comes around a month after the board approved an ordinance raising the minimum monthly charge for a residential five-eighths inch meter inside the city from

$4.99 to $13 by 2021 and from $7.50 to $19.50 for residential meters outside the city.

The citizens had no vote on whether to approve that rate increase, just like they had no say in Mr. Albright’s salary increase. But voters may opt for a lump of coal in the city’s stocking the next time they step into the voting booth, as a result.