By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The Mesquite City Council last week approved annualized cost of living adjustments (COLA) for top level managers on city staff including police and fire management, the City Attorney, the Municipal Judge and the City Manager. This adjustment would match the collective bargaining agreements for each of the corresponding departments. The action took place in a meeting held Tuesday, Oct. 11.
“On the basis of parity and equity, I’m requesting that the council would approve the additional funding to match the collective bargaining agreements for fire, police and general requirements,” said City Manager Peter Jankowski.
Jankowski explained that the city had budgeted a five percent adjustment which was distributed in July at the beginning of the fiscal year. But Jankowski said he was now asking for another 5-7 percent depending on the collective bargaining agreements of respective employees in the departments.
“That would be effective Oct. 2, so the second quarter of the fiscal year,” Jankowski said.
Jankowski acknowledged that he had been asked to find the money for this adjustments within the city budget. He said that he had done that.
“Looking at the vacant positions we had, I took 25 percent from all of those, since a quarter of the year has passed,” Jankowski said. “That produced $66,000.”
The overall cost of the adjustments was $148,000. So the unfunded balance for the adjustment was still $82,000. This difference could be covered in one of two ways, Jankowski said.
“We can use the general fund surplus which right now is projected at roughly $2.4 million, which is essentially the money that is in the budget but doesn’t get spent,” Jankowski said.
The second option was to use American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to make up the difference, he said.
“Those funds are permitted for that use,” Jankowski said. “That is how we are funding our other collective bargaining agreements.”
Councilman Wes Boger said that he didn’t like using the ARPA funds salary increases because it is a limited funding source. But he felt better about using the budget surplus to fund it.
“I feel like this is necessary,” Boger added. “I don’t feel like the manager should make less than the people they are managing. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. For that, why wouldn’t you want to be demoted to a different position and get the union wages and make more money?”
Councilman Brian Wursten agreed that cost of living increases should not come from ARPA funds. But he was also curious about the budget surpluses.
“Where we have these budget surpluses, I want to know if we can make this a permanent situation in the budget,” Wursten said. “I mean we still have that fire station (in Sun City) that we are going to build and I think we need to find a permanent place in the budget for these things.”
Wursten pointed out that the police department raises already had come from ARPA funds.
“I would like to see a permanent place for those as well in the budget,” he said. “Because the last thing I want to see is people getting laid off in a couple of years because we are out of the ARPA funds and don’t have the money to pay them anymore..”
Wursten said that he wanted to know where the surplus was coming from.
The city’s chief financial officer Nikki Thorn agreed that using one-time ARPA funds for ongoing expenses would be a bad idea. But she clarified that the budget surplus was for the previous fiscal year which is still being finalized.
“Most of that surplus, the difference between the 3.8 and the 2.4 (million) is due to the additional state C-tax (Consolidated Tax distribution),” Thorn said. “Last year, the increase over the previous year was pretty phenomenal. I don’t think that anybody realized that we would go back to pre-COVID levels that quickly.”
But Thorn said that she would continue to monitor the situation throughout the year.
Wursten emphasized that the council needs to be fiscally responsible. “In my opinion, if we don’t have this (funding) for year after year, we are not being fiscally responsible – whether we use American Rescue funds, or not.”
Councilman George Gault made a motion to approve the cost of living adjustments. The motion passed with a unanimous vote.
