The city’s vice mayor wants to delay city employee raises by three months and purchase double the planned number of police cameras next fiscal year.
Otherwise, he plans to oppose the Fiscal Year 2025 budget when it comes up for a vote during Tuesday’s board of aldermen meeting at City Hall.
Roy A. Perkins, who represents Ward 6 on the board in addition to serving as vice mayor, emailed a statement of his intentions Saturday to The Dispatch.
“It is urgent and necessitous that the city provides the necessary funding for a grand total of 40 new, additional security cameras, as requested, for the upcoming fiscal year, so that the city can continue to provide and implement the safest environment and the highest level of protection in our city for all persons within our city,” part of the email reads.
Police Chief Mark Ballard asked aldermen in May to purchase 40 cameras over the next two years, as well as add two employees to monitor the video feeds. Now, there is only one employee doing that job. Tripling the team would allow for 24-hour live monitoring.
The board included the two positions and 20 cameras in the proposed budget for next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Aldermen have discussed buying the rest of the cameras in FY 2026.
“The burn rate we thought we could accomplish in one year is about 20,” City Information Technology Director Joel Clements told The Dispatch on Monday, referring to his department’s ability to take delivery of and install the cameras. “… They are built to order, and once we get them we have to do some setup to prepare for connectivity – get them mounted on the pole, get power to them, get them connected and then put in our video management system.”
Clements said his office and the police department based that estimate on its experience deploying the 34 police cameras the city already has.
But with city elections coming up next year, Perkins is not certain the next aldermen board would buy the rest of the cameras. Even if they couldn’t all go up within a year, he would rather commit the money now.
Perkins proposes delaying planned raises for city employees until Jan. 1, which he said would free up the $140,000 needed for 20 cameras without having to raise taxes. He told The Dispatch on Monday the cameras are his “to concern” for the budget due to their benefit to public safety.
“The beauty of that is the money is in the budget earmarked and dedicated and appropriated for that specific line item,” Perkins said. “Then next year, when we get to the budget, we don’t have to try to arrive at how we’re going to pay for it. There’s always going to be some need, some request, some desire to swallow every penny we have.
“What’s the harm in doing that if we’re truly committed?” he added.
The “harm,” said Ward 2 Alderwoman and Budget Chair Sandra Sistrunk, is losing good employees during the three-month delay on raises. However, she confirmed the delay would create “roughly” the amount needed for the rest of the cameras.
“Our employees have gotten accustomed to raises happening at a certain time, and I think it’s important we support them,” said Sistrunk, noting some employees are weighing other job opportunities against what the board decides on the raises.
Perkins disagrees, pointing to the “lucrative” and “generous” raises city employees received for this fiscal year.
“They are not going anywhere,” Perkins said. “If they leave the city just because we gave them a lucrative raise last year and (now) they’ve got to wait three months, we don’t need them anyway.”
Board response
Aside from Sistrunk, Ward 3 Alderman Jeffrey Rupp and Ward 5 Alderman Hamp Beatty also want to proceed with the budget, and raises, as planned. If Perkins moves to delay the raises Tuesday, Rupp does not think it would draw a second.
“A lot of respect for the vice mayor, but I don’t agree with him on this one,” Rupp said. “I think we need to give the raises, get the original 20 cameras and rock on.”
Both Sistrunk and Beatty see Perkins’ concern that the next board could change course, but neither think that is likely with a public safety issue like police cameras.
“We’ve seen it happen before,” Sistrunk said. “With this one, I’m acting on faith that the future board would support it. I think the community supports it for the most part.”
On the other hand, Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn said he believes Perkins makes “a very good point.” The cameras have been an effective law enforcement tool so far. More are needed as soon as possible for the city “to continue to be as safe as we are,” Vaughn said.
“It’s something to think about … to go ahead and get it grounded and earmarked to where it has some teeth to it,” Vaughn said of budgeting all the camera money now. “It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
Mayor Lynn Spruill, in a text message Saturday to The Dispatch, was unequivocal in her support for getting 20 more cameras in FY 2026.
“I will fight any efforts to derail that additional 20,” she wrote. “I believe our employees deserve those raises as quickly as we can afford to provide them, which is October 1, 2024. We can do this and still meet the most aggressive camera installation schedule.”
Either way, Ballard said his department would make it work.
“The Starkville Police Department supports and implements all decisions made by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen,” Ballard wrote in a statement to The Dispatch.
Neither Ward 1 Alderwoman Kim Moreland nor Ward 4 Alderman Mike Brooks returned calls or messages for comment by press time.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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