WM council passes pay raises for select city workers

WM council passes pay raises for select city workers

news@theeveningtimes.com

Several employees of the city of West Memphis will see a bump in their next paychecks after the West Memphis City Council approved resolution providing raises for a number of municipal workers.

The business centered on Street Department and Sanitation Department employees, with the provision that workers take on some additional duties and complete cross-training to earn an increase.

A handful of city administrators were also granted a pay hike. The administrative assistants for the mayor and city attorney, as well as the senior city clerk had peaked in their salary classes but were given special increases through the resolution.

Specifics included:

• The Senior Deputy Clerk’s pay grade was changed from level 18 to 20.

• The Data Processing Manager’s pay was raised to $80,000 per year.

• The City Utility Manager’s pay was raised to $110,000.

• Secretaries to the mayor and city attorney were upped to pay grade 22.

• The Code Enforcement Clerk’s salary was raised to pay grade 15.

• The City Building Inspector was raised to pay grade 22.

• The Human Resource Assistant’s pay was raised to level 16.

• The Municipal District Court Clerks saw their pay levels raised to 14.

• The Chief Deputy Clerk was moved to grade 16, plus a five percent increase for the Chief Clerk.

• Street and Sanitation hourly workers all moved up a pay grade, with the overtime-exempt employees in those departments garnering another five percent.

Some department raises were reworked under established budget caps but not all of them were covered.

In all the pay increases cost the city another $135,000 in payroll expense under the budget just set at the end of January.

The raise process started with department head requests followed human resource department comparative compensation analysis examining other similar cities in the state.

The study results were presented to respective department oversight commissions and then the budget commission before being presented to the whole city council.

These pay increases approved by city council were the third pay bump for the select city employees in four months. All city employees received a three percent annual year end bonus and another 3 percent across the board raise for all city workers. The special raises were aimed at bringing pay rates in line with wages and salaries earned by workers in cities similar to West Memphis.

The raises were momentous in that they represent the start of a new review process which will be applied to every department.

These were the first of more raise considerations expected to come this year.

Budget chairman, Councilman Tracy Catt, promised a look across every city department throughout the remainder of the 2017. The process including a wage study will be the same for each department.

“We’ll look at all the others and finish with police and fire departments by year end,” said Catt.

“Those are the biggest departments and will have the greatest impact on the overall budget.”

City Council was glad to mark the pay progress and dispensed with reading the resolution by title only.

Councilman James Pulliaum moved for City Attorney Mike Stephenson to read out the entire budget amendment allowing for the pay increases. The specifics aired on the city cable access channel for city workers to view.

The budget amendment read in part, “Whereas the City Council of the City of West Memphis, Arkansas, find that the recommended budget amendment for the purpose of funding this allocation is appropriate and should be approved.”

City Council agreed. The council had perfect attendance for the meeting and unanimously approved the resolution by acclamation.

Provisions placed the raises into effect.

By John Rech