STARKVILLE — A sweeping raise proposal that covers more than 270 city employee positions would cost more than $1 million, according to a draft report of a recent salary study from the Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University.

Matthew Peterson, a classification and compensation research associate with Stennis, is compiling the information for the salary study.

The city provided The Dispatch a copy of the study’s draft results in response to a public records request, and Peterson said a final draft should be ready next week.

About $540,000 of the raises would come from the city’s general fund, prompting the board of aldermen to consider a 1.87-mill increase for the next fiscal year to generate enough new property tax revenue to cover them.

Another $510,000 for utilities, sanitation and municipal airport employees would come from enterprise revenue generated by ratepayers, city officials said.

Those totals include wages and benefits. The subtotal for just the wage raises is roughly $830,000 — of which $427,000 would come from the general fund. Total city payroll is roughly $15.2 million, so the proposed raises would increase it by about 7%.

The Stennis Institute of Government is examining each position and determining their market value compared to similar positions in peer cities across the state.

“I don’t want us to be picking winners and losers in this,” Mayor Lynn Spruill said, touting the integrity and objectivity of the third-party study. “I want us to have a fair, responsible way … to determine who gets what.”

For positions recommended for a pay bump, proposed raises range, by percentage, from as little as 0.28% to as much as 27.53% — with 38 positions poised for increases of 10% or greater but most falling between 3 and 9%.

By amount, the lowest proposed raise is $264.35 annually for the chief water operator, while the largest is $29,452.40 for the Starkville Utilities general manager. Most raises would range between $1,000 and $6,000 annually, with 20 positions calling for raises of greater than $6,000.

Some police and fire department positions would not get any raises, according to the study draft, as well as various posts in other departments that already meet the market average. But the minimum wage for firefighters would rise to $12.60 per hour, police officers would make at least $20.85 per hour and sanitation workers would all make at least $15.20 per hour.

Utilities account for the largest share of the increases, with roughly $372,000 in raises proposed for electricity and water employees. Police are poised for the second-most at $143,000, and fire follows closely behind at $136,000.

The mayor ($1,282.33) and board of aldermen ($843.18) each for all but Ward 5’s Hamp Beatty) also have raises included in the study.

Spruill said she is foregoing hers and aldermen are discussing doing likewise.

The city will hold a public hearing Aug. 15 on the tax increase and will consider approval for that, and the raises, Sept. 5.

Study rationale
Peterson said the Stennis Institute, which helps cities across the state with policy and salary studies, has provided salary studies for Starkville every odd year since at least 2013.

This year, he said, he obtained job descriptions and salary data from the city’s human resources department, then looked at similar sized cities from “all corners” of the state to provide averages, medians, minimums and maximums for similar positions.

HR Director Navarrete Ashford told The Dispatch the study looked at Columbus, Greenville, Hattiesburg, Horn Lake, Meridian, Olive Branch, Oxford and Tupelo, as well as public and private utilities across the state.

In Starkville, Peterson said, most positions already sat at 80 to 90% of the average salary. The proposed increases would bring nearly all positions up to 100%.

“The city is in good shape, as far as being somewhat competitive,” he said. “I think they just wanted to be more competitive.”

Skill positions
Spruill said the city particularly wants to better compete for high-skill positions — engineering, utility linemen and information technology, to name a few.

Four positions in engineering would see raises ranging from $2,598 to more than $12,000 annually. IT’s four positions would see raises ranging from $700 to $8,961.

Utility linemen would see raises in the $7,000 to $9,000 range, with most apprentice linemen going up $2,000 to $4,000.

Spruill said the city can’t “compete with the private sector” on wages, so its sales pitch is often state benefits, job stability and regular hours. Even then, high-skill personnel who are hard to replace often leave.

Department heads, most of whom would see bumps in pay from the study, have historically less turnover but would be cost more than their proposed raises to replace if they leave.

Several departments are currently led by personnel who received internal promotions, including the police department, where the chief is slated for a $5,631 increase; and sanitation, where the director is poised to receive an extra $12,332.

Spruill said before Mark Ballard was hired in 2019 to lead SPD, he was one of only two applicants.

“I don’t know what would happen today, and I don’t want to find out,” Spruill said.

But the city has high turnover in sanitation, as well as 25 or so total vacancies across all departments, Ashford said. Of those, 13 are in the police department and three are in fire. The board has also frozen hiring for 12 positions combined in police and fire that were going chronically unfilled.

Spruill hopes bringing those positions up to the study average will help with recruiting and retaining those, too.

Opposition

Mike Brooks, alderman for Ward 4, wants to see the raises more evenly distributed.

At the Aug. 1 board meeting, he proposed a flat 6% raise across the board, instead of varying increases that leave many lower-wage employees looking at 3% or less.

“They all do good work,” he said. “… It’s just the perception of giving that type of raise, especially when we’re having to raise taxes to do it.”

He’s particularly alarmed about utilities general manager Edward Kemp getting such a steep raise, a nearly $30,000 bump that would raise his salary to about $172,600 annually — even though that raise would not be funded by the tax increase.

Kemp, the former city engineer, took over as utilities GM in April 2022. Though the raise optics are jarring, Brooks said, he believes Kemp performs his job well.

Both Spruill and Ashford noted Kemp’s new salary, if approved, would still fall short of the $190,000 to $200,000 paid to GMs at Columbus Light and Water and 4-County Electric Power, respectively.

Brooks said he’d come more near voting for a tax increase for a flat 6% than what’s on the table, though Spruill said she’d rather let data drive raises so they don’t get out of whack.

“I think it would mean more to the lower-rung guys than the top guys,” Brooks said.

Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.