The Smithville Aldermen adopted a new budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year Monday night over the objections of a local resident who complained that police officers weren’t being paid enough by the city.

(CLICK LINK BELOW TO VIEW CITY BUDGET FOR 2018-19 FISCAL YEAR)

2019 budget for 2nd reading.pdf (1.37 MB)

Gary Durham, who addressed the council, took issue with the city budget saying police officers, especially at the entry level, ought to be paid more.

“You are paying $15.00 per hour (entry level). That is under poverty level. By the time they pay their insurance, their taxes, and social security, that is under what you call poverty level. The average police officer in the state of Tennessee makes $44,000. In a town of 6,000, they are paid an average of $39,000. There are over 135 police officers killed every year. Does anybody in this audience want to put on a uniform and go out there on the street and come home for $15.00 an hour? I don’t think so. Your budget is absolutely terrible when it comes to your police officers,” said Durham.

“Have you seen the high end of what our police officers make,” asked Alderman Shawn Jacobs?. They advance quickly. According to Chief (Mark) Collins, we are competitive with this new pay scale. Chief Collins recommended this and we are accepting his recommendation,” said Alderman Jacobs.

“Lets talk about the low end (entry level)”, added Alderman Jason Murphy. I am looking at the police salaries. Our lowest paid police officer, if you add in insurance that we pay for him that doesn’t come out of his pocket, he’ll make $45,000 a year,” said Alderman Murphy.

The discussion turned ugly for a few moments when Durham called out Alderman Danny Washer for coming to the meeting dressed casually in shorts and a cap. Durham said it was not respectful for that kind of attire at a public meeting. Washer took offense to the remark and told Durham he didn’t appreciate it.

Under the new budget, the police department wage scale has been changed from a five step to a four step plan after entry level. Hourly employees in the department will step on their anniversary hire date with no cost of living increase. Those in the police department who have topped out on the fourth step will receive a one percent cost of living increase in pay as of July 1.

According to the budget, pay for police officers based on the four step scale at entry level and at the fourth step is as follows:

Officers:
Starting Pay-$15.21 per hour (previously step 1)
Fourth Year- $19.65 per hour (previously step 5)

Corporal:
Starting Pay-$16.09 per hour (previously step 1)
Fourth Year- $21.17 per hour (previously step 5)

Sergeants and Investigator:
Starting Pay-$16.96 per hour (previously step 1)
Fourth Year- $22.69 per hour (previously step 5)

Lieutenant:
Starting Pay-$17.85 per hour (previously step 1)
Fourth Year- $24.08 per hour (previously step 5)

Captain: Starting Pay-$22.16 per hour (previously step 1)
Fourth Year- $27.87 per hour (previously step 5)

Clerks:
Starting Pay-$14.66 per hour (previously step 1)
Fourth Year- $17.93 per hour (previously step 5)

Most of the police department employees have already topped out on the four step wage scale based on their years of service.

Under the new budget, patrol officers will earn from $35,068 to $48,478 including overtime, longevity bonus plus a $6,100 health insurance benefit paid by the city.

Sergeants will earn from $57,945 to $60,534 including overtime, longevity bonus, plus a $6,100 health insurance benefit paid by the city.

Pay for the Investigator will be $52,504 including overtime, longevity bonus, plus a $6,100 health insurance benefit paid by the city.

The Lieutenant earns $58,624 including overtime, longevity bonus, plus a $6,100 health insurance benefit paid by the city.

The Captain’s pay is $61,875 including overtime, longevity bonus, plus a $6,100 health insurance benefit paid by the city.

The Chief’s salary is set by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. He earns $62,393 including longevity bonus plus a $6,100 health insurance benefit paid by the city.

Other hourly employees working for the city under a four step wage scale in their departments will also receive step increases on their anniversary hire date with a one percent cost of living raise July 1. Those already topped out on the fourth step as well as salaried employees for the city will only get the one percent COLA increase as of July 1.

Alderman Gayla Hendrix later thanked Durham for his concerns and explained the reasons for some of the board’s decisions on the new budget.

“I agree with you. I wish we could pay every city employee a lot more money than we are but one of the reasons we are not spending as much this year is because we have made some very major capital outlay expenses in the last few years with our sanitation truck, fire truck, and other improvements and then we lost a lot of our water customers from the DeKalb Utility District. We are hoping after this year we won’t have any major outlays for a little bit and we can start doing some more for our employees and others. I would like to see our police department make more and to have more paid firefighters. But we’re trying not to go in the hole too far this year. We’re going to get the fire truck paid off this year and we’ve got the sanitation truck paid for so next year we’ll be looking to make some significant progress with salaries and such as that. We have made a lot of great improvements to the city over the last few years and stayed under our budget and there are a lot of things we want to do its just that our revenue is not increasing while we are trying to spend more. So we are going to have to think in the future of ways to increase our revenue,” said Alderman Hendrix.

The budget was adopted on a unanimous vote by the Aldermen.

Alderman Jacobs said he was glad to see the city funding a half time position at the animal shelter on a full time basis to assist the full time director there.

“I am in complete support of animal control and adding the full time animal control officer I think is the absolute right thing to do. Honestly we need more help in animal control than just two people. I hope the county will help us out with that at some point with an actual animal control officer. I am pleased with this but I do think it is a darn shame when we have more (full time paid) people in animal control than we do in our fire department. It’s a public safety issue and we also need to address it at some point,” said Alderman Jacobs.

The budget totals almost $6.4 million. Under the new spending plan, the property tax rate will remain the same at 64.9 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Water and sewer rates, which were increased last year, will not be changed this year. City water customers pay $7.25 per thousand gallons of usage. Rates for customers outside the city limits pay $10.88 per thousand. Sewer customers both inside and outside the city pay $6.75 per thousand gallons.

The half time employee at the animal shelter will be funded on a full time basis. The full time director at the animal shelter, who earns $15.00 per hour, will be raised to the same as entry level pay in other departments. The Chamber of Commerce will also be getting an increase in funding of $5,000 putting the total contribution at $15,000 from the city.

A used utility truck with a dump bed is budgeted for the water/sewer department as well as a newer used vehicle for animal control. New software for police department evidence identification has been included in the budget along with $9,500 to install a wrought iron fence around the veterans monument at Green Brook Park.

Fire hydrant repairs and maintenance of $25,000 is being funded in the water and sewer budget and the city plans to replace 400 feet of sewer lines on Bright Hill Road, a $40,000 expense. The city will also purchase 2 air tanks for the sewer plant and buy a tank for the plant at a cost of $1,261.

The city’s general fund expenditures are expected to exceed revenues be $529,162 come June 30, 2019. However most of that amount, $406,934 is to make a final payment on the purchase of the latest fire truck

Although the city’s water and sewer budget is projecting an overage of $133,112 for the new year, much of that is due to the funding of depreciation. However, if the city were to run in the red by more than two years in the water and sewer fund, it would have to make cuts or look for more revenue since the state requires the department to stay solvent.

Tennesseans who want to vote in the Aug. 2 primary must register to vote today (Tuesday).

Luckily, registering is easier than ever in Tennessee using a computer, tablet or smartphone. Online voter registration allows any U.S. citizen with a driver’s license or photo ID issued by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security to register online at GoVoteTN.com.

“This is the first major election cycle where Tennessee’s online voter registration has been in place. We’ve seen tremendous interest because we are meeting people online where they already are,” Secretary of State Tre Hargett said.

Early voting begins Friday, July 13, and runs Mondays through Saturdays until Saturday, July 28. Election Day is Thursday, Aug. 2.

“We have major races this election season so there will be a lot of interest as Tennesseans decide who will represent them across all levels of government. I urge voters to take advantage of early voting,” Sec. Hargett said.

Voters can also download the GoVoteTN app, available in the App Store or Google Play, to view voter-specific information. Voters can find early voting and Election Day polling locations, view and mark sample ballots and much more.

Contact the DeKalb County Election Commission Office for more details about registering to vote at 615-597-4146.