Little Rock board listens to 2023 proposal

LITTLE ROCK — A 2023 budget proposal presented to the Little Rock Board of Directors at a meeting Tuesday would provide pay raises to police officers, firefighters and 911 communications personnel.

Additionally, the draft budget proposal would give a 3.5% across-the-board pay increase for all full-time, nonuniformed city workers.

Little Rock Chief Financial Officer Sara Lenehan presented the budget proposal to board members.

This is expected to be Lenehan’s final year-end budgeting process. She has said she intends to retire at the end of June after working for the city for close to 20 years.

The 2023 budget proposal would set revenue and spending across all city funds at roughly $315 million and $313 million, respectively, for net income of nearly $2.4 million.

The projections represent increases over the most recent budget ordinance city board members adopted in October. Revenue and expenses across all city funds in the amended budget amounted to $304 million and $308 million, respectively.

General-fund revenue and expenses would be balanced in the proposed 2023 budget at close to $241 million each.

The amended budget for 2022 city board members adopted in October put general-fund revenue and expenses at roughly $235 million and $241 million, respectively.

Toward the start of the meeting Tuesday, Human Resources Director Stacey Witherell confirmed that police union members had approved a proposed contract for the coming year following negotiations with the city.

Approximately $5 million in the draft 2023 budget would finance raises for Police Department personnel.

The proposed budget would set the starting salary for entry-level police officers at $50,000. Lenehan described it as a 12% increase, in line with the 12% increase the city has proposed for officers with less than six years of service on their step-and-grade progression.

More experienced officers would also see increases to their step-and-grade salary progression that range from 2.5% to 9.7%. Salaries within the Police Department’s command staff would increase 7.9%.

The city’s recruiting bonus paid to new officers would remain the same at $10,000.

Uniformed personnel in the Fire Department would receive a 4.5% pay increase, but when accounting for a pay boost that would be given to emergency medical technicians as a result of the proposed budget, the total impact for firefighters who are also EMTs would be a 5.5% increase, Lenehan said.

Additionally, nonuniformed full-time city workers would receive a 3.5% across- theboard salary increase.

Personnel working in 911 emergency communications would receive an extra salary boost of $1,700 each because of the difficulty filling those positions, Lenehan said.

The budget for 2022 board members adopted late last year included an across-theboard pay raise of 2%.

The 2023 budget would provide for 1,766 full-time positions under the city’s general fund, up 35 from the original budget adopted for 2022.

In the Little Rock Police Department, those new positions would consist of a deputy police chief, a lieutenant, two civilian background investigators, a crime scene specialist, a police subpoena technician and a network coordinator, according to the budget presentation.

Twelve new positions in the Fire Department would be tied to a proposed fire station in west Little Rock.

Across all city funds, the city’s total full-time workforce would be 2,259, an increase of 43 compared to the original budget adopted for the current year.

The budget proposal was presented for discussion purposes only during the meeting Tuesday. Pursuant to local ordinance, city board members must adopt a budget ordinance for 2023 sometime before the end of the month.