West Memphis officials working with salary study data to create 2019 budgets

West Memphis officials working with salary study data to create 2019 budgets

Human Resources Department working with consultant to study employee compensation figures

news@theeveningtimes.com

The West Memphis Human Resource department released a salary range study to department heads and city council. Administration leaders were set to produce budget recommendations for 2019 by the end of November. Most workers were well within the average pay ranges for similar jobs in other Arkansas cities with population between 20,000 and 50,000. The population in West Memphis was just under 25,000.

City Human Resource Director Janice Coleman introduced the hired compensation consultant to City Council .

“Rhonda Davis has been working with us for a while now doing a comparison of salaries, for the city,” said Coleman. “She has extensive experience and got some things worked out.”

The city needed a neutral outside consultant to fairly compile the pay data with other cities in compliance to safe harbor regulations.

Davis called the study a guide for department heads and city council to consider while building next year’s budget.

“This is just a guide,” said Davis as she distributed hard copies to city council at the budget commission meeting. “Under safe harbor rules, wage studies need to be conducted independently so it doesn’t look like wages are being held down. We (In Paragould) decided to do it independently too so there was no question if the management was trying to keep wages down.”

“That keeps it away from favoritism,” said Councilman James Holt.

City department heads will take the numbers under advisement and propose any payroll adjustment in department budget requests.

Some adjustments to wages and working conditions were made through the 2018 budget year in the city. Administrative assistants at city hall and at district court were increased.

The city shop got a facelift and sanitation workers received paid uniforms for the first time, just like other uniformed departments.

The Utilities department recommended a $150,000 pay and benefits increase for next year after reviewing the Davis study. But, employee retention at the city’s two biggest remaining departments went un-

By John Rech