Helena finds cash, meets payroll

City clerk had e-mailed elected officials about possible delay

— Two days after advising Helena-West Helena’s elected officials that paying them on time was uncertain, City Clerk Sandi Ramsey said she found enough money to meet the city’s payroll today.

Ramsey had sent an e-mail to the city’s mayor, attorney, treasurer, 10 aldermen and two district judges Tuesday,saying the city did “not have the finances to cover” payroll, which comes every two weeks.

She wrote that the city’s employees were a priority, but its elected officials may have to forgo being paid for two weeks.

But Thursday afternoon, only hours before she started writing payroll checks to be issued today, Ramsey said the collection of more sanitation fees from residents than expected and a few checks from other services had helped her meet the payroll.

She said she would transfer additional money from the city’s landfill account to payroll if necessary.

“We made it,” Ramsey said. “Everything is good.”

In her Tuesday e-mail, Ramsey said elected officials,including herself, may not be paid.

“It is imperative that the employees receive their checks,” she wrote. “It is quite possible that the electeds (all of us) will not be paid on Friday if I cannot find enough money.”

According to Ramsey, Helena-West Helena’s nonelected employees are paid a total of $160,000 every two weeks, while elected officials receive a total of about $5,000.

Helena-West Helena City Attorney Caulk Mitchell said earlier that he and other elected officials had agreed to forgo pay this week to ensure that city employees such as police, fire and sanitation workers would receive their paychecks.

“Money is tight,” Mitchell said Wednesday. “We have major problems making the payroll. When you look at the percentage of employees to elected officials, we’re just a drop in the bucket.”

Most of the elected officials either have other jobs or are retired, he said.

Ramsey blamed low monthly sales-tax revenue returns for the financial shortfall and noted that that middle-of-the-month payrolls are harder to meet since tax collections are disbursed at the first of each month.

“When we get our sales tax money, the payroll is the first to be paid,” she said. “Then, it doesn’t leave much to go around for the rest of the month.”

Alderman Joe St. Columbia said he wasn’t surprised when he received Ramsey’s e-mail Tuesday.

“I knew we had financial problems,” he said. “We’ve had problems for a long while.”

He criticized a recent City Council vote that appropriated about $500 a month to one area church and other money to several other churches and day-care centers.

“We give away money, and we don’t have it,” he said. “That’s not a good practice.”

Ramsey said that despite the reprieve Thursday, she is already nervous about making her next payrolls in March. Employees will receive three paychecks that month, she said.

Arkansas, Pages 11 on 02/15/2013

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