Employee pay raise included in city’s 2019 budget

The $115.2 million 2019 budget the Hot Springs Board of Directors adopted Tuesday night includes a 2-percent cost-of-living adjustment for the city’s more than 600 full-time employees.

The board said based on the findings of a salary survey the Johanson Group of Fayetteville will begin next month, the pay raise could be adjusted to 3 percent sometime next year. The board’s $118,450 budget includes $10,000 to pay for the survey. The city said increasing the COLA to 3 percent would add about $200,000 in general fund expenses.

The budget adopted Tuesday night is a 1.3-percent increase from the 2018 adopted budget. No new personnel was added.

“I want to thank the employees of the city of Hot Springs,” Interim City Manager Bill Burrough told the board. “It’s their efforts throughout the year that allow us to consistently perform to our best. Their diligence for efficiency and cost containment allow us to outperform our budget expectations on a consistent basis year after year.”

In addition to the COLA, the 2019 budget includes $300,000 to update the city’s comprehensive plan. The 2030 comprehensive plan was developed in 1997 and last updated in 2010. The 2040 update budgeted for next year will inform land use and other city policies using public input and demographic and economic data.

“When you talk about our land-use plan or any of our planning, the very first step is our comprehensive plan,” Burrough told the board during last month’s budget presentation. “I found

a memo from 2007 indicating that we were well due for an update at that time.

“It just hasn’t been funded. We wanted to be sure to get that in this year.”

General fund revenues of $24,115,581 are projected next year. The budget takes $840,992 from the general fund reserve to meet $24,956,573 in general fund expenses. The city projected general fund deficits of about $1 million in 2016 and 2017, but receipts outpaced expenses by $1.12 million and $953,000. The $1.19 million deficit projected for the current year has been adjusted to a $200,000 surplus.

A $5.8 million general fund reserve is projected for the start of next year, putting it 45 percent above the 16 percent of annual expenses the city code requires the board to maintain.

Sixty percent of the general fund will be transferred to other funds, including $7.3 million to the police fund and $5.5 million to the fire fund. The street fund will receive a more than $1 million transfer.

The $407,000 in general fund capital expenses include $34,000 to update audio and visual equipment in the board chambers, $125,000 for vehicles for the planning and development, parks and recreation and public works departments and $65,000 for soccer field and tennis court renovations at Kimery Park.

The water and wastewater funds’ $17.6 million and $21 million budgets both include $1.5 million for line relocations to accommodate numerous road-widening projects the state has programmed for the area in the 2019-22 transportation plan.

The wastewater fund’s capital expenses also include $300,000 for odor-control measures. The city said new sewer mains installed to meet the mandate of its consent agreement with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality feature additional air-release valves. The city said it’s received odor complaints from residential areas near the valves.