The Camp Verde Town Council discussed the staff budget for Fiscal Year 2021-22 at a special session June 9.
The council was initially presented with a draft of the budget at a May 7 meeting, at which they were advised to allocate an additional $800,000 for staff raises, new employee salaries, retirement and benefits, which would help increase salaries to 90% of the market rate.
This sum would be split into two phases, $400,000 that would be implemented in July 2021 and $400,000 that would be implemented in January 2022.
At a June 2 meeting, the council was presented with a proposal from the Arizona Conference of Police and Sheriffs [AZCOPS] asking for an increase in staff salaries for city law enforcement employees, as they currently start at $1 to $3 per hour less than in most neighboring communities. This, combined with other local municipalities offering more competitive benefits, has led to the department losing a significant number of employees to neighboring towns.
This presentation, in part, prompted the council to hold a special work meeting to review the budget proposal before they have to approve it June 16. At this meeting, Town Manager Russ Martin said that while they were working through the numbers in preparation for the meeting, he and Finance Director Mike Showers discovered that the town could actually offer salaries at 100% of the market rate instead of 90% and still stay within the $800,000 increased budget they initially discussed.
“You can do the 100% in that scenario, and what you end up getting in that 100% and the two July and January is less than potentially even the $800,000 you’re considering using,” Martin said.
This would mean that every town employee would be eligible for at least a 3% salary increase. How high of a raise an employee would receive would depend on the salary range their position is in and whether they are meeting the minimum salary for their position and number of years on the job.
Martin presented the council with a recommended salary range table based on the 2021 Salary Survey Draft, which includes salary ranges from one to 40 and minimum, midpoint and maximum salary an employee in a position under that range can receive.
Under a salary range of one, the minimum salary would be $25,272 on the recommended table and would have a maximum of $36,645.
Within each salary range, there are 15 levels. An employee would be eligible to increase by one level for each year, which would include a 3% increase.
“What we sat down to discuss was whether we should change it or not change it because people were so stuck on what their range number was, but ultimately, this is a better structure,” Councilwoman Jessie Murdock said.
If the council chooses to adopt the recommended salary scales and budget increase, employees’ wages would be bumped to the salary they should be earning based on that scale, so most would receive a 3% increase. Those who are further below the salary should be receiving will receive a larger increase, though they may not see the entire raise until January.
However, there will be a cap implemented so that no employee can receive more than a $3 per hour raise. If this budget increase is approved, the total payroll budget would increase by about 16%.
With these increases, the city would be within a few cents of the salaries that AZCOPS requested from the council.
“I’m excited because I feel really good about moving to 100%. We will compete in that top middle category that everybody else is in all of the positions. … We still have some work to do, but for the lion’s share of the staff, 75% give or take, everybody gets to that average and that salary study and we get in really good competition for all of those positions. I would argue morale will be really good and ultimately that’s that,” Martin said.
The proposal was well-received from all of the council members.
“I’m thrilled out of my mind to tell you the truth,” Vice Mayor Joe Butner said. “It shows that we can get to 100% for people across the board, which is what we’ve been trying to do for, I don’t know, as long as I’ve been paying attention even. It’s just been embarrassing for our town I think for quite some time and here we are we’re measuring up finally. That’s a great move for us.”
Councilwoman Robin Whatley agreed, saying she thought the staff-wide salary increase would help to make up for the years that some staff didn’t receive a raise.
“I’m really happy with this and glad that we can do that and that we can reward those people who have been with us and have been with the job even though they’ve gotten no raise at all,” she said.
The council will continue to review the proposed changes to the staff budget and make any suggestions before they go to approve the budget at its next council meeting June 16.
