County faces growing list of expenses

Salary consultant suggests 3 percent raise for workers

FAYETTEVILLE — Washington County needs to give its employees a raise to keep up with the local job market, the county’s salary consultant said Tuesday, adding another new expense to the list county officials are considering as they debate next year’s spending of taxpayer money.

Blair Johanson of the Johanson Group consulting firm recommended a 3 percent bump for all of the county’s 670 or so employees, excluding elected officials such as the sheriff and county judge. Altogether the raise would cost roughly $820,000, or about 1.4 percent of this year’s $59 million budget.

Departments’ spending on each other’s behalf also touched off a debate during Tuesday’s Quorum Court meeting.

Johanson said national, statewide and Northwest Arkansas surveys show local governments and private companies like Tyson Foods

raised their employees’ pay by around 3 percent this year and generally plan on a similar boost in 2016. The county, meanwhile, raised this year’s payroll by 2 percent.

“I think we need to make up a bit to get caught up with the market” to prevent workers from jumping ship for greener pastures elsewhere, Johanson said.

The proposal goes on the pile of other possible increases for county services such as operating the county jail and holding elections. Earlier this month the county judge’s office unveiled department requests totaling about $60 million; they’ll likely reach $62 million after the county library system sets its request. That’s $3 million above this year’s budget and about $4 million more than Treasurer Bobby Hill forecasts in new revenue next year.

The imbalance means the proposed budget would chip away at the county’s reserves

for emergencies — which many Quorum Court members oppose — unless it’s trimmed down in the coming weeks or the county raises taxes.

Several justices of the peace questioned Johanson’s proposal, saying county employees get generous retirement benefits set by the state. The county also provides around 90 employees with non-law enforcement vehicles they can use to commute, a benefit that costs the county but isn’t included in salary numbers.

The justices moved on to streamlining the county’s budget controls, essentially a list of ground rules for how the county’s budget is set and adjusted. The Quorum Court voted to take out several controls members said were redundant with other laws or policies.

One of the evening’s longest debates came when some justices tried to add a rule saying departments can’t spend their money for each other.

The issue sparked fierce controversy this summer over animal shelter money; in response to this year’s budget cuts, the Buildings and Grounds department stopped buying the shelter’s cleaning supplies, leading the shelter director to ask a divided Quorum Court for more money.

Republican Tom Lundstrum of Elm Springs said the arrangement between the departments muddies the budget waters and shouldn’t have existed to begin with.

“We need to know what it actually costs us to run these departments if we’re going to budget for these departments,” he said.

But the new rule was tabled for later discussion because of the scope of interdepartmental connections. Grounds pays everyone’s utilities, for example, while the Planning and Road Departments share a building and expenses.

“We do function as a county together, across elected official lines and across department lines,” planning director Juliet Richey told the justices.