SPRINGDALE -- Longtime members of the city's Police Department and dispatchers might soon be rewarded for their years of service.
The City Council on Oct. 21 unanimously recommended adding $255,500 to the 2023 budget proposed by Mayor Doug Sprouse. The city's operating budget as proposed totals $62,170,186, an 8% increase over last year's budget of $57,148,280.
The budget as presented includes a 6% cost of living raise to salaries for all city employees -- including police and dispatchers -- City Council members and appointees to the Planning Commission.
The salaries of the city's three elected officials -- Sprouse, City Attorney Ernest Cate and City Clerk Denise Pearce -- are figured differently, Sprouse said.
Last year, salaries were adjusted after a market study of wages.
The council spent Oct. 21 with heads of every city department to learn about their requests for spending next year. The council must approve a budget before the end of the year.
The council plans to continue budget discussions after its Committee of the Whole meeting Wednesday .
"I'm pleased to present a budget that's very healthy," Sprouse told council members. "The city's in a better financial situation than it has been since I became mayor 20 years ago."
Sprouse said his staff budgeted very conservatively, planning an 8% increase in sales tax returns. The city's actual tax revenue has run between 15% and 20% increases annually for several years, including during the pandemic.
The 2023 budget would provide the city a $5 million surplus at the end of next year, which should support the city despite a predicted economic downturn. The city forecasts a surplus of $9 million at the end of 2022, said Colby Fulfer, the mayor's chief of staff.
Undesignated funds in the budget should total about $2.5 million at the end of 2022, Fulfer said. The undesignated money does not include money awarded to the city under the federal American Rescue Plan. That money must be used according to federal guidelines, Fulfer said.
The city also keeps a reserve fund of $4 million for dire emergencies, Sprouse said. He suggested the council might want to add more to that fund if the city's economy stays strong.
The longevity pay is just one of the incentives Police Chief Frank Gamble proposed to boost morale in the department and make the city's pay scale similar to those of other Northwest Arkansas cities.
The incentive would go to 114 administrators, officers and dispatchers who have served in the Police Department for five or more years.
An officer who has served five years with the department would get $700 added to his annual salary. The incentive would be paid over 26 paychecks each year, Gamble said. That incentive would double when an officer has worked for the city for 10 years.
The department has 38 employees in the five- to nine-year mark.
The department has eight people who have worked for 25 years or more. Each would receive an additional $5,600 annually as long as he stays with the department.
Sprouse at the end of the budget session told the council he had texted Fire Chief Blake Holte and asked him to gather similar information for firefighters and paramedics.
Gamble asked for a total of $11,807,568 in salaries and $183,200 budgeted for overtime payments, but this did not include the proposed incentive pay.
Several area police departments have raised the starting pay for their officers, which draws recruits to other agencies, Gamble explained. Springdale's starting pay for officers is $42,643.
The Arkansas State Police pays $54,000 to new troopers with an automatic raise of $5,400 at four-and-a-half years of service, according to a pay scale provided by spokesman Bill Sadler.
Gamble said he worries about attracting and keeping officers.
Council members noted they would be willing to consider additional pay increases for the department in three or six months. Gamble suggested other incentive pay for things like certification, college degrees and special duty.
The department also requested four additional special operations officers to provide building security when the city's new municipal campus opens. All visitors will enter the campus at one location and undergo screening by the building security, Sprouse said.
The department's budget worksheets listed 21 open positions in the department, not including the new positions.
Each would earn $35,202, as would a new reports specialist tasked with downloading video from officers' body and dash cameras, Gamble said.