Council examines salaries, positions

BELLA VISTA — The City Council examined adding a part-time police officer paid through budgeted money and adjusting elected officials’ pay during its Aug. 17 work session.

Mayor Peter Christie said the city establishes salaries for council members, the mayor and city clerk by resolution every two years, as suggested by city ordinance.

For the two years, he said, an increase of 5% is appropriate and approved by the city’s human resources and finance departments.

“The impact on the bottom line … is $8,278,” he said.

Councilman Larry Wilms said he wasn’t sure city officials should get a raise, given the current state of affairs.

“We’ve had a lot of our people in Bella Vista and the Northwest Arkansas area that have been without work,” he said.

Councilwoman Linda Lloyd said she was in agreement.

While the overall impact is very small, it doesn’t seem like a top priority, she said.

“We should tend to other things in the city before we worry about ourselves,” she said, noting some departments, such as Community Development Services, could really use more people.

Councilman Doug Fowler asked if the council could hold off until next year.

Staff attorney Jason Kelley said while the city’s ordinance says the council should address salaries, if the council doesn’t, they remain the same.

“There’s basically no harm, no foul,” he said.

If council members wish to change one pay rate but not another, they can pass an amendment to the resolution without having to separate it into multiple resolutions, he added.

The council also examined adding a part-time police officer position.

Police Chief James Graves said the position is part of a part-time officer program he’d like to build to take some strain off officers and provide better coverage for events.

“We run into trouble staffing a lot of events,” he said. “While we’re able to handle them, it makes it difficult on officers.”

Graves said his plan is to have three part-timers in the department’s budget next year. The officers can be paid a flat $19 per hour and will most likely work a single 10-hour shift each week.

The officers can also relieve some overtime, he added.

For the single position,

Graves said he expects to be able to cover it with budgeted money, particularly labor money that wasn’t spent because of vacancies in the department.

Christie added the court facility currently uses someone from the department’s command staff as a bailiff, but a part-time officer could fill that role and, at a lower labor rate, could reduce the city’s court costs.

The council also looked at accepting a financial audit report, approving the appointment of Lila Smith to the library board, approving the appointment of Erin Rowe to the arts council, authorizing the purchase of sand and salt, based on price and availability and authorizing a threeyear lease for computers and associated equipment.