Bryant City Council members said they were surprised to find out this week that Mayor Jill Dabbs gave herself a raise despite telling aldermen in December that she would not change her salary without their approval.
A Bryant resident and former alderman used the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act to procure pay stubs this week that revealed Dabbs and City Clerk Heather McKim each received a 5 percent pay raise in March that was retroactive to January and February. The yearly total increase is nearly $3,300 for Dabbs and about $2,000 for McKim.
Dabbs said Wednesday that a city ordinance passed by the council in 2011 gave her the authority to raise the salaries by 5 percent in January of this year, and that she did not give herself an increase deceptively. She added that the salary is a source of contention only because Alderman Randy Cox is running against her in the forthcoming mayoral election.
"The elected officials salary issue has been raised again by my opponent, Randy Cox," Dabbs said. "This is a desperate, silly, frivolous, but, most importantly, untruthful statement. I do not set my salary, the City Council sets the mayor's salary by city ordinance."
At a Finance and Personnel Committee meeting in December, Dabbs said that she would not change her salary without a vote by the council.
"I can tell you right now, as your mayor, I will not change the budget. I will not change the salary for myself or any other elected officials unless council votes on it, regardless of what any ordinance says," Dabbs said at the December meeting.
Council members said Wednesday that they're unsure whether the ordinance gives Dabbs the authority to raise her salary. Because of the confusion, they said, they thought she would discuss the matter with them before taking any action.
"She's saying it's strictly political reasons that we're talking about it, well ... no," Alderman Wade Permenter said. "It's the fact that she stated in December that she would not give increases without bringing it before the City Council. That is completely 180 degrees from what she did."
Dabbs also pointed to the council's approval of the 2014 budget as affirmation that she was justified in increasing her pay. She noted that the 5 percent increase for her salary and McKim's was included in the line item for elected officials' salaries.
Several aldermen, however, said they were told at meetings concerning the 2014 budget that there would not be any salary increases for elected officials.
Cox said Wednesday that he didn't want to speak much about the issue because "people will think it's just something political." He and other aldermen will discuss the raise at today's council meeting, he said.
"Then some of the other council members will be allowed the opportunity to speak."
This isn't the first time Dabbs' salary has been the source of contention with the council.
Shortly after she took office in 2011, Dabbs ordered a payroll employee to raise her salary to match the previous mayor's pay. Her salary was less because a council-approved pay-scale program for elected officials tied the mayor's base salary to an outside consultant's salary scale, which took education and experience as an elected official into consideration.
"Until 2014, I was paid 10 percent less than my male predecessor, and I'm currently paid 5 percent less for doing the same job," Dabbs said Wednesday.
Danny Steele, an alderman at the time, filed a complaint against her, and the Arkansas Ethics Commission found probable cause to investigate. After a public hearing, Dabbs was issued a letter of caution.
Dabbs again attempted to raise her salary in December.
She and McKim put forth a resolution before Bryant's Finance and Personnel Committee to raise their salaries to meet the minimum pay set in the Job Evaluation Salary Administration Program, the pay-scale program the city has used since 2009 to set salaries. If the study were adopted, Dabbs' salary would have been raised by about $15,800 and McKim's by nearly $8,700.
The resolution was brought forth the same day Dabbs issued a warning to city employees via email that they might not receive annual raises for the first half of the year.
The City Council unanimously voted down the resolution.
"I would think after the first time of getting in trouble for it, she'd be more careful," said Alderman Adrian Hensley, who is also running in Bryant's Nov. 4 mayoral election.
Metro on 09/25/2014