Jonesboro Finance Committee approves salary plan that boosts budget by 5%

Jonesboro city employees will have a little more money in their pockets under a plan approved Tuesday afternoon by a key city council committee. The Jonesboro City Council’s Finance Committee approved funding $1.079 million as part of a salary plan, retroactive to Jan. 1.

The amount was about a 5% increase to the $20.2 million already set aside for salaries in the city’s 2016 budget. However, the $20.2 million does not take into account monies already set aside for Medicare, disability insurance and pensions which can be affected by salary increases, interim communications director Roy Ockert said.

Ockert said adding the Medicare, disability insurance and pensions figures on the $20 million to “make a valid comparison.”

City officials have studied the issue since mid-2015 and asked Fayetteville-based consulting firm, Johanson Group, to study the issue. The firm found that Jonesboro was about 6.5% below the salary schedule for similar sized cities like Conway, Springdale and North Little Rock, officials said late Monday. The new pay scale will move the 6.5% figure to about 3.5%, officials said.

Committee chairman Darrel Dover said the plan looked at compression issues in looking at the pay scale. Dover said the committee spent a lot of time looking at the issue and will continue looking at the issue on a quarterly basis.

The city’s 2016 budget lists 514 jobs with the city, with the vast majority being full time. Also, the budget has part time positions listed for the parks and JET transportation departments.

The plan calls for:
• $503,947 to be spent by giving $1,000 individual pay raises that would be added to each full-time employee’s annual salary;
• $364,089 to be spent on a longevity plan. The plan would allow all full-time employees with more than one full year of service to receive an annual payment of $75 per each year employed, with a max at 30 years;
• $242,078 for Social Security, FICA and retirement costs; and
• $76,725 for targeting employees with compression issues found in the Johanson Group’s study.

The compression issue happened due to officers hired in 2014 starting out making the same amount of money as someone hired in 2009, officials said. Dover said the committee would deal with an incentive-based plan during its March meeting.

Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott said his department was short about seven officers and the department was in search of grant funding to help with salaries. The police department has 164 positions set aside in the 2016 budget, with 157 filled. Elliott said the new pay scale will help with retaining officers and provide a boost to salaries.

The plan now heads to the full city council for their approval at its Feb. 16 meeting.