The North Little Rock City Council unanimously approved Monday night an ordinance amending and restating the retirement system for nonuniformed employees.
Ember Strange, the city's finance director, told the city council that changes made to the retirement system make it more equitable.
"We want to make the plan more fair for our longer-term employees," Strange said. "It wasn't a big cost for the city."
Strange said the defined benefits plan prior to the amendment provided that a member with a minimum of 20 years credited service who had reached the age of 65 was entitled to a normal retirement allowance of 2% of the member's final average compensation, multiplied by the member's years of credited service.
"This amendment changes this to allow employees who have 30 years of credited service who attain the age of 62 to receive the 2.0% multiplier when they would have previously only received a 1.8% multiplier had they not reached the age of 65," Strange said last week. "Prior to this amendment, this city contributed 10% of employees' salaries to the plan, while employees contributed 5%."
Strange said in order to maintain the retirement plan's funding status with the potential change, the city will need to increase its contribution by 1.35%, to a total of 11.35%. She said the city budgeted an additional $390,000 in the 2021 budget for this change.
The City Council also discussed Monday night an email from North Little Rock resident Doug McDowall who expressed concern about the number of businesses that are receiving alcohol sales permits.
McDowall said an increasing number of stores that sell alcohol limits where minors can work because Alcoholic Beverage Control Division regulations prohibit minors from handling alcoholic beverages.
"Minors cannot ring up a sale, restock shelves, coolers or displays, check in deliveries, etc., and because of this it blocks teens from any chance of being hired there once that beer/wine permit hangs on their wall," McDowall said in an email to the council "Filing an objection with the ABC may be able to stop these permits from being granted, or at least delay them for a while, and comments from the city carry some weight with ABC."
Councilman Charlie Hight asked the council if anyone was interested in drafting a resolution or ordinance to request that the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division slow the number of alcohol permits it issues within the city.
Councilwoman Linda Robinson said she was hesitant about the idea since other stores had already had permits approved by the city.
Councilman Nathan Hamilton also mentioned that the state gives retail stores the ability to sell alcohol, and any comment from the city probably wouldn't have any effect.
Councilwoman Debi Ross agreed there wasn't a need for a resolution or official comment from the city, but mentioned if a neighborhood wants to prevent a retail store in its area from getting an alcohol sales permit that it needs to reach out to the council.
No action was taken on the issue.