Benton County officials eye adding employees

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's elected officials are asking the Quorum Court to approve requests for six new employees and a range of wage and salary adjustments not included in this year's budget.

The county's Personnel Committee will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday to consider the list of requests already approved by the Job Evaluation and Salary Administration Program Committee. The committee is made up of the countywide elected officials, Barb Ludwig, county human resources director, and Shirley Sandlin, justice of the peace for District 8 and head of the Personnel Committee.

County costs

Benton County’s elected officials are asking the Quorum Court to approve six new positions, a longevity pay plan for county employees and other wage and salary adjustments. The county’s Finance Committee will decide whether to fund any or all of the requests that are forwarded to it by the Personnel Committee.

Source: Staff report

The Personnel Committee will be asked to rank each of the new positions and other requests before sending them on to the Finance Committee, which will consider the cost, Ludwig said.

"There are six new positions, some wage adjustments and reorganizations where they're deleting some jobs and adding others," Ludwig said. "Personnel will rank those and then for finance (committee), I'll put together a cumulative budget impact. Personnel isn't really supposed to look at the budget impact."

This year's mid-year requests are larger than in recent years, but close to what the county was seeing before the economic downturn of several years ago, Ludwig said.

"I would say it represents where we were probably five years ago," she said. "From about 2010, 2011 and 2013 we were going through a tight budget period. There weren't any raises and they didn't want us to have any new positions."

Sandlin said she's not sure the Quorum Court is ready to return to a time when new spending was more easily approved, even after some years of frugality.

"I think some of these are people trying to play catch-up and some of it is new," Sandlin said. "There may be some that will get their requests and some I don't think will be."

Barry Moehring, justice of the peace for District 15, said he still prefers to delay personnel requests until the normal budget process in the fall.

"My barometer will be, for any new positions, are they necessary at mid-year or are they something we can take a look at budget?" he said. "If it's a public safety concern we certainly need to look at it. But mid-year requests should only be used for things that crop up during the year and can only be handled that way."

The JESAP Committee also recommended the county adopt a longevity pay proposal that would increase the base pay of employees by $250 after they complete five years of service, by $500 after they finish 10 years of service, by $750 after 15 years of service and by $1,000 after an employee completes 20 years with the county.

The estimated first-year cost of the proposal is about $260,000, including wages and benefits, Ludwig said. Current employees would receive all longevity pay increases they are eligible for. The county has 20 employees with 20 or more years of service. Those employees would receive an increase of $2,500 if the plan is approved, Ludwig said.

Longevity pay will be in addition to, not a replacement for, merit increases and cost-of-living pay increases considered by the Quorum Court during the preparation of each year's budget, Ludwig said.

NW News on 06/29/2015

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