LITTLE ROCK — Few residents had questions for Little Rock city officials Wednesday about the capital city’s largest budget ever.
The mayor and city manager took the basics of the $158.6 million spending plan on the road to west Little Rock and to the John Barrow Road area, where city employees outnumbered the turnout of residents.
The spending plan represents an 18 percent increase over this year’s budget, the result of a sales tax increase voters approved in September. Voters approved a 1 percentage-point increase in the city’s sales-tax rate, raising the tax from a half-percent to 1.5 percent. The rate takes effect Jan. 1, but the city won’t start receiving the first new revenue until March.
The increase will help pay for filling more than 100 jobs, some of which were held vacant for years to help balance the city’s budget.
“I was concerned they were going to try and spend all the new money quickly,” said Frank Pohlkamp, one of four residents to show up at a 5 p.m. budget hearing at the Roosevelt Thompson Library in west Little Rock. “I think, people-wise, they need to take a look at the organizational structure. I keep hearing they’re pretty heavy.”
Pohlkamp and the three other residents at the meeting questioned Mayor Mark Stodola and City Manager Bruce Moore on some of the more humdrum details of the budget, such as how much the city was contributing to nonuniform employee’s retirement funds (7 percent in next year’s budget) and the percentage of healthcare premiums the city pays for employees (100 percent).
Stephen Northington told city officials he didn’t understand why the city negotiates with employee unions on pay raises, saying that just because the city has done that historically doesn’t mean it always needs to.
“I’m really trying to understand from a common sense standpoint why we do that,” he said.
Moore said the three employee unions negotiate for pay and for other issues important to employees.
“Our employees feel like they have a representative,” Moore said.
The proposed 2012 budget includes 3 percent raises for the police, fire and nonuniform employee unions while other city employees will receive a 1.5 percent cost of living increase and have the potential for receiving another 1.5 percent merit pay increase.
Overall, the city expects to spend $111.6 million on staff costs next year, an $11.2 million increase over 2011 when new salaries, pay increases and benefits are figured in.
The new revenue will allow the city to advertise 57 new positions and fill 102 vacant positions.
The jobs range from a veterinarian for the zoo to 15 maintenance workers for parks. The zoo will have 10 new positions next year to help with its reaccreditation efforts, and the Fire Department expects to hire 12 new firefighters to staff a new station in west Little Rock. The city will also fill 32 vacant police officer positions and eight codes-enforcement jobs.
Pohlkamp said he hopes to see more police officers patrolling his west Little Rock neighborhood. That’s a possibility, Moore said, after the city opens up a planned substation somewhere off Arkansas 10 and fills the vacant positions.
Currently, the Northwest Patrol Division off Kanis Road patrols neighborhoods from University Avenue to the city’s western limits, dividing the territory up into eight districts with one officer patrolling each district.
Moore said the new substation could be a priority in the city’s capital budget next year. City directors won’t take up the capital budget, also funded by the sales tax increase, until January.
Only four residents showed up at the meeting at the Northwest Substation during a second round of budget discussions Wednesday.
“I don’t know if the weather is slumping things or what, but the last time we were here, the room was full,” said City Director Doris Wright, who represents the surrounding Ward 6 neighborhoods.
“I don’t know if people are comfortable now they know we’re not cutting things,” she said.
After listening to the budget presentation, Sam Raines asked Moore whether next year’s spending plan included any money for racquetball courts or extending the Arkansas River Trail east of the Clinton Presidential Library.
“Not at this point,” Moore said about the racquetball courts.
The city has applied for a federal grant to help close a gap in the trail near Cantrell Road, including a $500,000 grant match in next year’s budget. But Moore said there isn’t any plans in the works for beyond the Clinton library.
The budget does include a $908,317 increase for Central Arkansas Regional Transit, with some of that new funding going to future bus routes servicing the Pulaski County Technical College campus in southwest Little Rock and along John Barrow Road.
City officials will present the same budget information at 6 p.m. today at the Dunbar Community Center at 1001 W. 16th St.
City directors are expected to vote and approve the budget when they meet Tuesday.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 12/08/2011