Deputies’ raises, shelter operating funds to come before court

CONWAY — Two issues expected to come before the Faulkner County Quorum Court in January — raises for sheriff’s office deputies and operating funds for a proposed animal shelter — could be resolved by one of two approaches, a committee chairman said.

“We have a dual effort that we’re working on,” said Randy Higgins of Greenbrier, chairman of the Courts and Public Safety Committee of the Quorum Court.

Higgins said Faulkner County Sheriff Andy Shock told the court he needs $700,000 to fund the salary increases.

The operating expenses for a county animal shelter, which has been discussed for years, would be about $265,000, Higgins said. The county has collected $845,000 from a voluntary tax to go toward building the shelter, but part of the holdup has been the lack of operating funds for the facility, Higgins said.

To get $1 million to fund the salary increases and annual operation of the shelter, which does not yet have a site, Higgins said members of three committees: his, budget and finance, and the road committee, have discussed two main options.

“Option 1 is squeezing the entire county budget about 2 percent to cover that,” Higgins said. And by squeezing, he means cutting.

“To get a million dollars out, … we could go back and say, ‘We need everybody to trim back 1 1/2 to 2 percent,’ and nobody is going to like that, but that may be what we have to do,” he said.

“Option 2, we have a half-cent sales tax that half goes to criminal justice, and half goes to roads,” he said. When the sales tax was approved by voters in 1999 (collections started in 2000), the road situation was “much worse,” Higgins said. Since then, the county judges have improved infrastructure. “We’re in a different place now. … Road conditions aren’t perfect, but they’re better,” he said.

The sales-tax allocation could be changed from 50-50 to 55-45 or 60-40 toward criminal justice, Higgins said, and that would provide the $1 million needed.

“If we change it from 50-50, that money we would move over to criminal justice. That would cover the raises and animal-shelter operating budget,” he said. “Here’s the catch to that — to do that, that tax was voted on by the public, and we would have to take it back to the voters to vote on.”

The Quorum Court would need to communicate to voters that the change would not mean a tax increase, Higgins said. “All it would be is a reallocation of a tax that’s a dozen or so years old,” he said.

“To do what we’re talking about doing, you have to take money from somewhere and put it somewhere else,” Higgins said. Money would be taken from the road budget. “No county judge wants to give that up,” he said.

Higgins said outgoing Faulkner County Judge Allen Dodson has met with the committees to offer feedback.

“He cautioned us about taking money from infrastructure. It wasn’t that he was against it, but he cautioned about moving money around and the impact,” Higgins said.

Dodson said that if all 75 county judges were polled, 75 would probably say, “Whoa, whoa, can we get that money somewhere else?”

“The Faulkner County road [fund] is in a conservative financial position because county judges have felt comfortable that that money is secure, and in the world of budgeting, one thing that’s commonplace is if you don’t use it, you lose it,” he said. “Not in Faulkner County. County judges felt comfortable that revenue stream won’t dry up.”

Higgins said that among the committee members, there was “positive reception” to the idea of putting the sales-tax reallocation to a vote.

“It makes sense because, again, we’re not asking for new money from anybody. The Quorum Court — that’s what our job is, to actually manage the tax revenues that are already coming in,” he said.

Although Higgins said four or five joint committee meetings have been held to discuss the possibilities, no recommendation has been made.

Shock said it’s time for the county to make public safety a priority, and he doesn’t have a preference on options.

“I am thinking about whatever it takes to get our people raises,” he said.

“We have dump-truck drivers making $6,000 more a year than our sworn officers,” Shock said. “Our guys put their lives on the line,” he said, and undergo training, including three months at the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy. “It’s zero money for me, but it’s for my people, and we are grossly underpaid compared to other Class 6 counties in the area. We are lower, significantly lower on average, for a deputy, a detention officer and a 911 dispatcher.”

Shock said he has 173 full-time employees, and funds are spread thin.

“Yes, I’ve been able to get a raise or two, … but we have 87 detention officers. You can’t spread $5,000 around because it won’t amount to anything,” he said.

Shock said the sheriff’s office is “constantly” losing good employees to other departments that pay higher salaries. He said he doesn’t blame the employees for wanting to better themselves and their families.

“Until we raise our pay up, we’re not going to be able to retain a lot of people we’re using,” he said. “There’s a handful of my guys right now — they’re waiting to see what happens. I’m not even going to address the court we have right now. I’m waiting till Jan. 1.”

Higgins agreed that it’s an issue for the court to tackle in January.

“It’s not formulated enough to bring it to the full court,” Higgins said. “At this point, we’re going to wait until the new court is formed in January, and we’re going to come back and address it again.”

Jim Baker is the Faulkner County judge-elect.

“I support both of them,” he said of the deputies’ raises and the shelter. “I don’t know what our budget is,” he said.

As far as cutting the budget or reallocating the sales tax, Baker said, he is “more interested in getting resources from some source.” Baker said he has an idea but that he isn’t ready to announce it.

“We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get to figuring out where we’ll get the money,” he said.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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