SPRINGDALE — The City Council will have a 2013 budget ready for a vote at its next meeting.
The council, gathering Thursday as the Finance Committee, sent an adjusted budget to the Dec. 11 meeting with a recommendation for approval.
The main change came as an adjustment to salary raises. Mayor Doug Sprouse recommended raises for city employees in the proposed budget he sent to the council. The council must approve a budget each year.
“I think this is a good compromise,” Sprouse said. “There are still some imbalances we need to improve. We will need to address those in the future.”
In Sprouse’s proposal, policemen and firefighters would received a 6 percent raise. Other employees would receive raises according to how far a pay study showed they were below the regional average for their positions. Some employees, who were at the top of their pay range, would receive bonuses instead of raises, according to the proposed budget.
The employees that fell the most behind regional averages were department heads, according to the study.
The changes, proposed by Alderman Brad Bruns, would cap department heads at a 6 percent raise and guarantee at least a 4 percent raise for all employees.
Those at the top of their pay range would get 4 percent, but not a bonus under the adjustment, Bruns said. Elected officials, but not council members, would receive a 6 percent raise.
Those changes would only add $2,300 to the budget, Bruns said.
Kathy O’Kelley, police chief, asked to correct some discrepancies in pay between patrol officers and detectives, created during adjustments in the budgets of previous years. Her proposal would add an additional $8,000 in salary and another $3,000 in benefits, said Laura Favorite, city finance director.
The committee approved both changes unanimously. The cost for both changes will be about $13,000, she said.
The revised budget projects general fund revenue at $30.99 million and expenses at $31.86 million. The difference — about $870,000 — would be made up from unreserved money in the general fund.
Sprouse said he wanted to keep the difference between revenue and expenses below $1 million. The carryover money in 2012 that wasn’t spent will cover most of that, he said, and the rest can be saved from money budgeted but not spent during 2013.
That carryover is expected to be $625,378, according to Wyman Morgan, city director of administration and financial affairs.