The City of Smithville has established a new eight step wage scale for all hourly employees in the police department, effective with the 2012-13 fiscal year beginning July 1st
All other hourly city employees will remain under the four step scale, meaning those with up to four years of service will get their automatic step pay increases as defined in the wage scale plus a 3% cost of living increase in the new budget, as approved by the aldermen. City employees with more than four years of service, who have topped out on the wage scale will only get the cost of living increase.
Police Chief Randy Caplinger proposed the new eight step wage scale for his department after comparing what Smithville pays its officers with law enforcement agencies in other towns. Smithville has lost officers in recent years to departments in other cities for better pay, and Chief Caplinger said he was concerned that his department could lose more personnel, unless the city keeps wages competitive.
Under the new wage scale, Smithville police officers would top out after eight steps, rather than the four steps in the city’s current wage scale. Chief Caplinger said he came up with a plan for his department, after surveying other towns, averaging the starting and top out pay for each position in their police departments and using that as a model ” It doesn’t make us the highest paid but it doesn’t make us the lowest, we’re just in the middle of our surrounding area. It puts us comparable with our competition around and gives an incentive for the officers to stay,” he said.
The city budget will not be drastically impacted, according to Caplinger because the raises are spread out over eight years instead of four. “It really didn’t hurt the budget of the city because the raises were basically the same, it just extended it out further but gave a higher top out, which is an incentive to keep employees. Nobody is getting a big raise. In fact, a couple of officers may be getting a little less raise (under the new plan) than they would otherwise have received July 1 (under the current wage scale),” said Chief Caplinger
The proposed new eight step wage chart for the police department (including a 3% cost of living increase) this year is as follows (hourly rate) and (Annual Pay-No Overtime)
Officers:
$13.88 (Step1)- $28,879
$14.98 (Step2)- $31,150
$16.07 (Step3)- $33,421
$17.16 (Step4)- $35,692
$18.27 (Step5)- $38,006
$19.36 (Step6)- $40,277
$20.46 (Step7)- $42,548
$21.63 (Step8)- $44,990
Sergeants-Detectives:
$15.30 (Step1)- $31,814
$16.71 (Step2)- $34,749
$18.12 (Step3)- $37,684
$19.53 (Step4)- $40,619
$20.94 (Step5)- $43,554
$22.35 (Step6)- $46,490
$23.76 (Step7)- $49,425
$25.17 (Step8)- $52,360
Lieutenant:
$16.10 (Step1)-$33,485
$17.62 (Step2)-$36,656
$19.15(Step3)- $39,827
$20.67 (Step4)-$42,997
$22.20 (Step5)-$46,168
$23.72(Step6)-$49,339
$25.25 (Step7)-$52,510
$26.77(Step 8)-$55,680
Captain:
$20.41 (Step1)-$42,462
$21.83 (Step2)- $45,397
$23.24 (Step3)- $48,332
$24.65(Step4)- $51,267
$26.06 (Step5)- $54,202
$27.47 (Step6)- $57,137
$28.88 (Step7)- $60,072
$30.29(Step8)- $63,007
Since the Captain’s pay, under this wage scale, tops out higher than what the police chief currently earns, city officials have said the captain’s job may be changed from an hourly to a salaried position to keep his salary below the chief’s pay.
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