Springdale council gives initial approval of $57 million budget

SPRINGDALE — The City Council gave initial approval Monday to Mayor Doug Sprouse’s proposed 2022 budget of $57 million. But, first, the Council added a new librarian position.

Council members talked at length in a workday Friday about giving more pay than proposed in the budget to new police officers. This would help the city recruit new officers and compete against other cities in the region for those officers, said council member Kevin Flores.

But the council OK’d the budget with Sprouse’s proposed salary of $40,229 for new officers.

The proposed budget includes a 7% to 8% pay raise for most city employees — including police officers. All employees will receive raises, with the city using a salary study by Johanson Group to help determine amounts.

The council met Monday as a committee of the whole and will vote on the budget in its next regular meeting Dec. 14.

Council member Jeff Watson said after the meeting that adding pay to some officers, but not others, would disrupt the city’s step system.

“It was just too complex,” he said.

Flores said he was concerned with morale because the proposed budget’s new starting pay might leave new officers making as much as some officers in the same position who have been on the force for a year or two.

Police Chief Mike Peters told the council this happens every time the city raises its pay scale. But Peters said he goes to Sprouse if this has created a glaringly unfair situation, and Sprouse has always worked with him to fix the problem.

“There’s no way you can make everybody happy, or at least, I don’t know what it is,” Peters said.

The current minimum pay for a police officer in Springdale is $36,000. The 2022 budget would raise that by 12%.

The library’s new position would be a reference librarian at $66,280 a year.

The library in 2020 promoted Anne Gresham, then the technology coordinator, to assistant librarian, reported Marcia Ransom, director

of the city’s Public Library. Gresham continues to oversee the technology, fill her administrative duties and also works on the six-member team on the library’s service desks.

The new position will replace the technology coordinator position and “add a well-rounded base of skills and experience in preparation for increased activity and public service,” Ransom said.

The library closed to visitors during the pandemic but continued to serve patrons through virtual programming and curbside service.

Ransom said patrons want those services to continue even with the library’s reopening.

Ransom reported the library has 90,000 cardholders.

The Council also gave initial approval to use $345,000 to give bonuses to city staff who worked during the pandemic. The Council approved spending $650,000 for bonuses to police department and fire department personnel who had direct contact with the public during the pandemic.

The bonuses are made possible by $9 million for lost revenue during the pandemic awarded to the city under the American Rescue Plan.

Firefighters and police officers would receive $1,000 bonuses. All other city staff would receive $1,000 bonuses. Police officers would receive extra $2,000 bonuses that match bonuses given to firefighters from the state’s Rescue Plan funds.

The city sits in good financial shape, with sales tax receipts up 12% over the last year, said Colby Fulfer, the city’s chief of staff.

Expected revenue for the city in 2022 is $ 62,671,700 — up 17% from $53,369,720 since 2020, the 2022 budget reflects.

The 2022 operating budget of $ 57,082,150 calls for an 8% increase over 2021’s $52,849,050. A 6% increase is more typical, Fulfer said.

The pay increases for all employees added $3 million to the budget, Fulfer said.