Chaffee authority salary budget up 4.2% in 2010

story by Marla Cantrell
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There weren’t a lot of raises or bonuses handed out among local governments in 2009, and with good reason. We’re still in a recession, with some analysts calling it an “economic earthquake.”

The crisis, however, isn’t affecting the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority. Its staff of eight full-time employees is collectively earning $17,246 more than a year ago — not including a $15,000 bonus for the FCRA executive director.

But that isn’t the whole story. Only half of the full-time employees received raises. Stephanie Malone, director of marketing for FCRA, and Tommy Slekirk and Bobby Carlile, grounds and maintenance assistants, did not receive raises. Kenneth Plemmons, the grounds and maintenance supervisor, is now making more than his top assistant. Last year he made less.

And while Ivy Owen, FCRA executive director, didn’t get an increase in his base pay of $130,000, he did get a $15,000 FCRA board-approved bonus at the end of the year. Owen said when he took the position he requested the option of asking for the yearly perk.

At the Jan. 21 FCRA board meeting, Owen justified the employees raises.

“We did quite a bit of research on other comparable operations, budget-wise and personnel numbers,” Owen said. “We were satisfied we needed to do this to keep our employees up to the level with what other people, doing similar jobs in the area, were making.”

And with that, the board approved the raises. There was no breakout at the meeting, so The City Wire asked Owen for individual salaries and documentation of the research used to determine comparable operations and salaries.

Owen provided copies of two e-mails as his research documentation — one e-mail on Jan. 5 from Janet Menshek, the FCRA financial director, and one from Susie Marks, senior vice president of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.

“We didn’t use it to base raises on but we did use it to base comparable positions in the area and in the profession on comparable positions here,” Owen said of the research.

Menshek sent Owen labor statistics from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the email she said the “descriptions don’t quite fit us completely.” She included job description breakouts from the BLS, which showed the following median annual salaries:
• General and operations managers – $91,570
• Marketing managers – $108,580
• Financial managers – $99,330
• First line supervisors – $57,300
• Executive secretaries – 40,030
• Maintenance and repair workers – $33,710
   
Those numbers are well above the raises Owen recommended.

On the same day, Owen e-mailed Marks and asked for statewide/regional salary surveys for economic development employees. Marks sent an IEDC survey from agencies across the nation. It was compiled by ReadexResearch in 2008.
www.readexresearch.com

The IEDC report shows national base salaries related to economic development work on page as follows:
• Top level CEO – $85,000
• Vice Pres./Div. Manager – $92,000
• CFO – $69,000
• Deputy/Asst. Director – $78,800
• Dept. Head – $77,000
• Marketing Executive -$66,500
• Administrative Staff – $40,000

Those numbers are below the administrative salaries of the FCRA staff, with the exception of Owen, whose base salary is $130,000. In the southern U.S., the salary rises to $102,000 for agencies with similar operating budgets. 

In 2010, the FCRA operating budget doubled, going from $1.45 million to $2.35 million.  The ReadexResearch shows median salaries for operating budgets from $1 million to $2.4 million in the South are $82,000. Arkansas’ average salary was $61,900 and Little Rock came in at $52,000. The survey listed the median annual base salary across the nation (as of October 2008) for a respondent employed full-time, year-round in an economic development position as $75,000. Fewer (7%) make less than $40,000, while one in four (24%) make more than $100,000 in base annual salary.

The report said 85% indicated their salaries are adjusted annually and that personal performance accounts for 59% of that adjustment. Owen said he based raises for his employees on their job performance in 2009.

In 2009, the FCRA’s income was $1.7 million, and it’s projected to reach $2.6 million in 2010. A big part of that will be the $1 million mining income from contractors supplying shale for Interstate 49 construction through Chaffee Crossing. The mining revenue is up from only $67,450 collected in 2009.