Prairie Grove Council Discusses Merit Raises

PRAIRIE GROVE — The Prairie Grove City Council discussed merit raises for four employees Monday night but opted to wait to receive more financial information before voting on the requests.

Prairie Grove District Judge Graham Nations requested 5 percent merit raises for his three court clerks and police Chief Carl Dorman requested a 2 percent for the police captain. The four already have been approved for a 1.5 percent cost of living increase for 2012.

Mayor Sonny Hudson said the discussion Monday night was generated when “someone noticed someone was getting something they weren't and it all blew up.” Hudson agreed that the city probably needs to look at merit raises for other positions and also should “revisit what we do in the future so we're not doing what we're doing now.”

Nations said he was requesting merit raises because the court does not provide incremental raises to his employees.

“Our department continues to hit right at or come in under budget,” Nations said. “We've done pretty well.”

Nations pointed out the court is cautious about spending its money and also has implemented changes to improve its collection rate on fines and other court fees.

“This has nothing to do with me,” Nations said. “It's the girls in the office.”

He added, “Don't give me a raise. Take what you would give to me and give it to them.”

Hudson jokingly pointed out that Nations did not receive a raise for 2012. The council did not approve any pay increases for elected officials.

Dorman said a 2-percent merit raise for his police captain would bring that position closer to the salary paid by other cities in the area. The city's Police Committee also recommended increasing the captain's salary.

Larry Oelrich, director of administrative services and public works, said the increases would cost about $2,200.

Alderman Murph Pair said he supported the requests but wanted to see how the costs would affect the budget. The aldermen decided to wait until next month to make a decision. City Clerk Carol Pair is closing out the books for 2011 and said she would know about the year- end balance at that time.

In other action, the council approved purchasing a new 2012 Chevrolet truck for the police department for $20,542 and approved changes to the city's police policy.

One change to the police policy applies to social media and networking. The policy states that police officers can be disciplined if they post comments that are derogatory to the police department or post inappropriate pictures on social media.

“That's just catching up with this Facebook thing that everyone is following,” Dorman told the council.

The council also passed an ordinance that allows an exemption for lot splits on private drives in the city's growth area. An exemption is allowed to split one lot into two parcels and each new lot must have a minimum of five acres. The ordinance is the result of a divorce settlement on property in the city's growth area.