|
Holland gives unauthorized raises |
|
|
Friday, 18 April 2008 |
|
By Lynda Hollenbeck
Courier Staff Street department employees in the city of Benton recently received a 4 percent cost-of-living raise on the authority of Mayor Rick Holland.
Holland, however, does not have the authority to give across-the-board department wage increases, according to City Attorney Brent Houston.
The mayor has the authority to give department head raises, but must have City Council sanction before doing so for entire departments, Houston said.
“I have reviewed and considered the ordinance which adopted the JSAP (wage study) report and I have spoken with Mark Hayes at the Arkansas Municipal League about this matter as well,” Houston said.
“Unfortunately, the 4 percent raise which was given to the Street Department was not done in a proper fashion.”
The JSAP ordinance, which the City Council adopted, reserves the power to give cost-of-living adjustments to the council, Houston said.
“The council will consider these each year when the budget is adopted.”
“I do not believe the 4 percent, across-the-board raise could be considered anything but a COLA, especially considering the city has not adopted a policy on merit raises, which I have asked the council to consider in the past,” he said.
Houston informed the mayor that there are two options for dealing with the situation.
These are to “request the council to ratify the raise” or to “take the raise away from the employees.”
The money that has already been paid to employees may not be taken back, he said. “It would mean stopping the increases from this point forward if that is the option that is chose.”
“The city may not take the raise away retroactively,” he said.
On the advice of Houston, Holland informed the council’s Personnel Committe of the situation in order to discuss the issue and determine a resolution.
In that meeting, the council members present stated they want to meet with John Walden, the city’s chief financial officer, to determine if there is money in the budget to give 4 percent raises to employees in other departments.
Houston said he “thoughtfully considered this matter” prior to writing his opinion of the mayor’s action and said he reached the “same conclusion each time.”
Today, Holland said he has admitted he erred in his action, but said he had thought he had the authority to do so.
“Utilities had given their employees’ raises. They have dedicated funds and the parks department has dedicated funds. The street department had dedicated funds. The money was there, so I went ahead and gave them raises.
“We’re trying to get all of our employees raises and I hope we can,” he said.
“I thought I could do this, then I found out from Then I found Brent that I couldn’t do that. What I did was wrong. I went to the Personnel Committee and apologized and we discussed the two options to resolve it.
“They (aldermen) said they didn’t want to take it back. They wanted to give the rest of the employees a raise out of the general revenue if the money is there.”
Utilities employees’ wages are determined through the Benton Public Utilities Commission and parks and recreation department employees’ wages are governed by the city’s Parks Commission.
Holland said he wants all the employees to receive raises, but did not believe his decision to give the raises to the street department before other departments was unfair “since the money was there and it’s dedicated to the street department.”
Holland said he is not aware whether the parks department employees have received recent raises, but he believes they have.
“They have dedicated funds,” he said.
He said several times that he hopes it’s possible that all of the city’s 250 employees will receive additional compensation.
“As the money money become available, we’re getting closer to doing this. They all deserve it.”
The Citizens Public Safety Committee has been studying wage increases, among other issues, related to the city’s public safety departments and determined the last across-the-board raise given to those departments was in 2004.
The JSAP survey ordinance adjusted many of the salary levels in those departments — bringing salaries up to the minimum amounts recommended in the study — but the result was that some employees did not receive any additional compensation, according to a check with some of the departments.
|
Razorbacks