North Little Rock's city employees did extra work and put in long hours without complaints during flooding in June and more recent damaging storms, Mayor Joe Smith said Wednesday.
As a "thank you," Smith said, he will propose two resolutions at Monday's City Council meeting that would make 2.5% raises that took effect June 1 retroactive to Jan. 12, the first pay period of the year.
One resolution is to approve the change, and the other is to amend the budget to include the change.
The change would affect full-time, nonuniformed salaried and classified employees, and the police and fire chiefs, assistant police and fire chiefs, fire battalion chiefs and the city fire marshal. Uniformed police and fire personnel and information technology employees, all of whom received raises earlier this year, are excluded, as are all elected officials.
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"It's just saying thank you," Smith said Wednesday. "I heard no gripes, no complaints. I watched them work daylight till dark, and Lord only knows how much money they saved our citizens and saved our infrastructure by working as hard as they did. I've heard so many compliments from our citizens."
The change will cost the city $275,633, spread across seven budget funds, with $121,726 of that coming out of the general fund, which is the city's operating budget. The 2.5% raises that were approved in May by the council, which included nonuniformed employees and all elected officials, cost the city $418,866. The general fund amount took up $189,194 of that total.
Funding for the proposed change will come out of the city's reserves, interim city Finance Director Stephanie Thomas said. The city's reserves total about $17 million, she said.
"We've had so many little crazy things happen and one big thing with the flood," Smith said of changing the timing of the raises. "Then we've had four or five storms in the past 60 days.
"I really stood back and watched the teamwork that we had from all of our employees, especially our nonuniformed employees," the mayor said. "The teamwork, working three weeks in a row without vacation time or time off. I talked with other elected officials and we thought it would be a great way to show them how much we appreciate their attitude and their work ethic.
"This is just a way to say, 'Job well done, my friend. I appreciate you.'"
Starting the extra pay earlier than planned follows on the heels of the City Council approving a new $500,000 account from its reserves to pay for part of the damage, preparation and cleanup of Arkansas River flooding in May and June that affected most of Burns Park, the downtown riverfront and some neighborhoods. The city will apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement, but the city doesn't yet know the total damage costs or how much FEMA will reimburse the city.
While touting the raise proposal in May, Smith said he believed North Little Rock was in as good financial shape as it's ever been. City financial projections at that time forecast that city reserves would grow to $21 million by year's end.
North Little Rock also began last year with a voter-approved additional 1% city sales tax. Half of the tax revenue is a permanent addition to the general fund, while the other half is a five-year tax earmarked for street and drainage repairs, new or renovated fire stations and a new $30 million police and courts building.
"We're pretty confident," Smith said of the city being able to afford extending the raises. "We've got money in the bank. I'm not worried about our cash flow or anything else. If it takes 12 months for FEMA money to come back in, that's okay. We can manage."
Metro on 07/18/2019