Benton panel OKs raise of 4.1% for city workers

Benton employees are getting a raise.

The Benton City Council voted Monday to give all nonelected city employees who are paid from the general fund a 4.1 percent increase in salary.

The council also decided to waive construction fees for the developers of the Hurricane Creek shopping center.

Raises for more than 180 city employees will cost the city a total of $197,375 for the rest of the budget year ending in December, said Alderman Jerry Ponder.

The workers will get the pay increases retroactive to June 30, according to the ordinance.

Ponder said the raises will help the city retain its employees and reward them for their loyalty.

"We were a bit behind the curve," he said. "We were finding that we were losing personnel to other departments. After spending dollars, time and effort into training those folks to do their jobs, they were going to other cities to work."

The last time city employees got a raise was in January 2012, when the council approved a 2 percent increase.

This year, the increased salaries will be funded by the city's 2013 budget surplus.

The city's revenue exceeded its expenditures by $458,354 in 2013, said Mayor David Mattingly.

Savings from the public safety tax increase, which voters approved in 2013, will start funding the raises in 2015.

Ponder said some of the city's programs that used to receive all their money through the general fund now will be funded through the public safety money.

One such program is the city's 911 program, which drew about $570,000 from the general fund each year.

Now that those programs no longer draw from the general fund, the money can be used to pay for other city needs, like employee raises, Ponder said.

The council chose not to extend the raises to elected officials.

"In my position, personally, I did not think it was appropriate," Ponder said. "When I chose to seek public office, I knew what the job paid. And that was not the intent in mind of the citizens of Benton when they allowed the public safety tax to pass."

Mattingly said the city has held numerous meetings to discuss the salary increase with city staff members and the public.

After those meetings, he said he feels confident in the decision to proceed with the raises.

"I think had we not done something, we would have done the wrong thing," he said.

The council also voted Monday to waive construction fees for a gravity line being installed at the future location of a shopping center.

The development, the Hurricane Creek shopping center, will be built on the intersection of Arkansas 5 and Alcoa Road. It will be anchored by a Kroger Marketplace and Academy Sports.

As part of the construction, a wastewater gravity line must be installed to carry sewage to a city treatment plant.

Because of the ordinance passed Monday night, the developers will not have to pay building permit fees, inspection fees or demolition permit fees.

The council also agreed to pay Benton Utilities up to $50,000 minus the amount of the waived fees to help pay for the lines.

Ponder said the shopping center will cost approximately $51 million. It is expected to create about 900 jobs in the Benton and Bryant area, he said.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held at the site Friday.

Metro on 07/15/2014

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