The Pulaski County Quorum Court on Tuesday adjusted salary guidelines for new hires and then appropriated $319,433 so the sheriff's office wouldn't have to lower pay ranges for certain positions.
Adjustments to the county's hiring guidelines came after a 2017 pay study was done by a Fayetteville-based firm, the Johanson Group.
The group analyzed Pulaski County job descriptions, which fall into two categories: classified and unclassified. Salaries for both groups lag behind a competitive market, the firm reported.
The average unclassified employee, who usually has more education and experience, was paid 18 percent below the market average. Classified employees were paid about 10.6 percent below market average.
The firm devised new pay scales by calculating each job description's "salary midpoint," or basically what the average going rate would be in a competitive market.
They also crafted salary ranges with a minimum and maximum for each job description.
With those salary ranges in mind, Comptroller Mike Hutchens revised the county's salary guidelines for new employees. He submitted them to the Quorum Court, which unanimously approved them Tuesday.
The ordinance says all new full-time employees will be paid at their corresponding minimum-salary levels unless they meet "exceptionally well-qualified criteria."
Meeting that criteria means a candidate could perform the job with little or substantially less orientation and training than another qualified applicant.
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Those candidates can be offered up to 85 percent of the job description's salary midpoint.
A department head can also increase pay for an existing employee to that 85 percent level if that person meets similar standards and there's enough money to do so.
Hutchens said the 85 percent of midpoint figure was a "sweet spot" he came up with. For a lot of county jobs, that ceiling wasn't that different from the pay ceiling in the previous rating system.
However, for a couple of sheriff's office positions, the new hiring ranges were not an improvement.
Earlier this month, Chief Deputy Mike Lowery raised concerns.
He emailed Justice of the Peace Phil Stowers a spreadsheet with the current average pay for a several sheriff's office jobs including deputy, sergeant and dispatcher.
In the new hiring range, an applicant for deputy could be offered the minimum, $33,330, or seek up to $37,277 if exceptionally qualified.
That $37,277 maximum is less than the current average pay for a deputy, according to the spreadsheet. It's less than the maximum starting pay the sheriff's office could offer under the previous ranking system.
Because of this discrepancy, Lowery said he was concerned that the new hiring ranges would make it difficult to retain employees.
"We have a hard enough time hiring officers, anyway," Maj. Carl Minden said when reached by phone Tuesday.
Positions at the jail have high turnover, and in general, the sheriff's office offers lower pay than other law enforcement agencies in central Arkansas, he said.
After talking with sheriff's office personnel, Hutchens drafted an appropriations ordinance.
It allows the sheriff's office -- for certain positions like deputy and sergeant -- to continue hiring within the salary levels that were set before the Johanson study was adopted.
For that to be possible, Hutchens calculated that the sheriff's office needed $319,433. That money was appropriated from the general fund in an ordinance unanimously approved by the Quorum Court.
Stowers, in support of the ordinance, said that while every county employee works hard, "not all of us strap a gun on our hip every day and serve in that capacity."
Appropriating the money ensures that the sheriff's office is not "going backward" in their hiring wages, he said.
Some confusion among the Quorum Court arose as to whether a county department head can ask for pay-scale adjustments for their new hires.
"Anybody can request anything," Hutchens told the Quorum Court. He added that elected officials can always "say no" to those requests.
The county has roughly 1,250 employees that fit into 340 different job descriptions.
It's possible there is another job description out there that has a lower maximum hiring salary under the Johanson study than in the previous system, Hutchens said.
So far, Hutchens said he's been handling those issues on a case by case basis.
"I'm quite sure my phone is going to ring like crazy tomorrow."
Metro on 02/28/2018