BENTON -- The Benton City Council kicked off a series of planned raises to city workers by adjusting the pay scale for Police Department employees, making their salaries more competitive with surrounding areas.
Police Chief Scotty Hodges said officials bumped the pay scale for Police Department employees -- made up of officers, civilians and communications workers. The shift will take effect in June.
The City Council approved the raise on Monday, moving the pay for entry-level officer positions from $33,459 to $36,200.
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In the previous pay grade, the minimum captains could earn was $61,018 and the maximum was $91,528. Under the new system, a captain who has been employed with the department for nine years makes $71,000. But the new metric of pay bumps up the entire scale, raising the pay for all but seven Police Department employees and gives each a yearly salary increase under the plan, according to the ordinance.
Hodges will not receive a raise, but the other six employees who do not get raises in June will get them in later months, Hodges said.
City officials decided to look into paying their Police Department more money after they lost five officers to surrounding forces. The last time the department had a full staff was in September.
Benton's continuous growth further exacerbates the issue. Hodges said the department will need to keep hiring officers, noting that Benton will add two school resource officer positions for the next school year.
"It lets people know that we take their safety serious," Mayor Tom Farmer said.
The raises are estimated to cost the city a combined $220,000, which Hodges said he pulled from the existing police budget.
Before the end of the year, Farmer said he hopes to boost the pay scale for the remaining city departments. Depending on city revenue, salary increases would take effect for the Fire Department, followed by the Parks Department and then the Street Department.
The city has 285 available positions. The Police Department makes up 98 of those, claiming roughly a third of the city's jobs.
The goal of the raises is to attract qualified applicants to the city.
"We're kind of playing behind the curve here," Hodges said about the pay increase.
He said that even with the raise, some police departments in the area still have higher wages.
In comparison, Little Rock offers its starting police officers $43,742.86 a year. Starting officers in North Little Rock earn $40,000. In Bryant, officers who begin with the department and are certified make $31,591.56, while officers who are not certified make $30,087.20. The minimum amount new Saline County deputies can make is $31, 026. In Pulaski County, beginning deputies make $33,330, and first-year police make $37,783 in Sherwood.
Farmer said investing in the salaries of police officers is synonymous with investing in public safety for Benton residents. In the next few years, Hodges said he would like to be able to do cost-of-living and merit-based raises as well.
"I think we're doing the right thing for our citizens by doing this," Farmer said.
Metro on 03/26/2019