LITTLE ROCK — North Little Rock aldermen approved the city’s 2013 budget of $59.02 million and bumped up their monthly automobile allowance by $150 — the first increase since 1980 — in the last regular City Council meeting of the year Thursday night.
Beginning next month, city aldermen will receive $250 per month as an auto allowance, up from $100 per month. North Little Rock aldermen also receive a $10,000 annual salary, which wasn’t changed.
The council approved the auto-allowance increase 5-0. Alderman Debi Ross, Beth White and Bruce Foutch passed on voting. Aldermen voted 8-0 to approve the budget beforehand.
In another budget move, the council voted 8-0 to insert a $25,000 line item in the general-fund budget for the city’s Police Athletic League (PAL) that provides athletic teams, uniforms, venues for games and other activities for free to children.
The council reduced an appropriation of $100,000 for “Youth Programs” already in the budget by $25,000 to help PAL, so the funding for such programs didn’t change.
Aldermen held a lengthy workshop Dec. 11 to discuss the proposed budget, so discussion of the budget Thursday night was brief other than the additions for PAL and the auto allowance. The general fund will increase 5.3 percent from this year.
No residents commented during a reconvened public hearing on the budget.
“I think we had a pretty good discussion session already,” Mayor Patrick Hays said, referring to the Dec. 11 workshop.
Alderman Charlie Hight, who co-sponsored the automobile allowance legislation with Alderman Maurice Taylor, said the increase was necessary because of higher gasoline prices and other expenses in the 32 years since the current amount was set, and because of the miles aldermen pile up on city business.
“There’s not a day or a week or a month that I don’t get several calls to come look at an issue, whether that’s in Ward 4 or in the entire city,” said Hight, a Ward 4 alderman. “The price of gas 32 years later is a lot more than it was in 1980.”
Taylor offered to sponsor legislation in January to add a raise in the auto allowances for the city attorney’s staff members who also receive $100 monthly each. City Attorney Jason Carter said the legislation for that should be separate from changing elected officials’ amount.
“It would not be appropriate to amend that in, because we always do that separate from the council,” Carter said. “I would prefer to have a car allowance for our attorneys that will better compensate them.”
On the PAL appropriation — an amendment proposed by Ross — Carter said the organization “certainly falls into the scope of youth programs.”
Once approved, Hays reminded the council that the budget is “a working document,” noting that the council amended the general-fund budget this year more than 40 times.
“It’s a road map, not an end document,” Hays said.
The City Council meeting was the last for Hays to preside over as mayor after 24 years in office. He estimated that he had attended about 550 meetings. Hays’ sixth term ends Monday.
Elected city officials presented Hays with a plaque commemorating his service to the city while Hays presented certificates to several family members, including his wife, Linda, and his three grandchildren, that noted their presence at the mayor’s final council meeting.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/29/2012