Joplin City Council Approves Pay Increases for Some Police and Fire
Some police and firefighters in Joplin will be seeing slight pay increases. The Joplin City Council unanimously approved a bill that adopts a new pay plan for certain positions. The new pay ranges for certain police and fire employees will use $362,000 in funding from the Public Safety Sales Tax fund. The new raises go into effect November 1st. In August, the council directed City Manager Sam Anselm to seek out ways to raise those salaries to a fifty percent level between local and regional cities. The bill also reclassifies the position of Police Officer I and Police Officer II to Police Officer. These raises would be an average of 2-4% for those affected.
However, councilman Phil Stinnett said he has concerns with how they are paying for the raises, citing concerns about city employees that had been left out of the increases. Stinnett says Joplin does not generate the same amount of tax revenues as Northwest Arkansas. He also brought out numbers, he says were provided by the city, regarding the number of employees leaving, stating that not all who leave are departing only because of the money they make. He added that he had an issue with using funds from the tax without doing something they told voters they were going to do with the public safety sales tax. He did vote yes on the bill, but he says he will not support moving forward with more raises without taking care of the rest of the employees and to find a new way to pay for this that isn’t based on estimates.
Mayor Shaw reiterated that he and council members are concerned about every city employee and are not satisfied with where they are with the pay raises, calling it “step one”.
Finance Director Leslie Haase gave an update to some projections to the Public Safety Sales Tax. She says that in the 2019 FY budget, the city will gain roughly $1.11 million in fund balance. Haase and council members also discussed the cost of adding more street lights throughout the city, especially in residential areas, to combat crime and to provide more safety.
- The council also advanced a bill to second and third readings that would alter an ordinance that prohibits panhandling within 150 feet of intersections on busy streets. In April, just two months after the council approved those original restrictions, the ACLU of Missouri filed a lawsuit against the city on behalf of a homeless man, stating that it interfered with free speech. The new bill, by recommendation of the city attorney’s office, aims to repeal Article IV, which includes Aggressive Solicitation.
- Council also approved the 2018-2019 fiscal year budget. The budget estimates $124,762,250 in revenue and $125,264,402 in appropriations.
- An outside audit service will be brought in to look over general-purpose financial statements, Single Audit, Police and Fire Pension Audit, and the Joplin Regional Airport’s Passenger Facility Charge Program. The cost of the first year will be $71,500.
- A construction agreement of $1,608,718 was reached between the city and D & E Plumbing and Heating for construction of Storm Project #12. It will along Illinois Avenue between 15th and 12th Streets and along 15th between Illinois and Michigan Avenue.