NATCHEZ — The City of Natchez had 19 more employees and a monthly payroll $36,842.76 higher in May of this year than it did at the tail end of 2012, just before Mayor Butch Brown took office.

The Natchez Democrat compared, using numbers provided by the city clerk’s office, the number of employees and total payroll of May 2012 to May 2015.

The total payroll was 6.6 percent higher in May 2015 than it was in May 2012.

Increases to the city’s personnel budget — and insurance costs that go with them — under Brown’s administration recently came to the attention of the Natchez Board of Aldermen, as they prepared a proposed 2015-2016 budget.

That budget will be presented to the public at a public hearing scheduled for 5 p.m., Tuesday.

In May 2012 the city’s total payroll was $557,769.82.

In May 2015 it was $594,612.58.

Both the number of employees and the total payroll fluctuates month-to-month.

Aldermen expressed worry and surprise at a recent meeting when increases just for 2015 were reported.

The change from 2012 to 2015 further warrants action, all six aldermen said last week.

Four out of six aldermen said the city should initiate a hiring freeze to ensure a more conservative city employee structure.

“I’m working on a motion right now that there be a six-month (hiring) freeze,” Ward 6 Alderman Dan Dillard said. “You have to recognize the fact that the city’s cost of operations goes up when more people are added.”

Ward 5 Alderman Mark Fortenbery, Ward 3 Alderwoman Sarah Carter Smith and Ward 4 Alderman Tony Fields all said they would support a citywide hiring freeze.

Ward 2 Alderman Rickey Gray said he might support a hiring freeze, but would want to make sure city police and fire departments are well staffed before committing to a freeze.

“I don’t want to freeze the police department and then something happen on the street and we not have enough people,” he said.

Gray also said the city needs to stay competitive with its salaries, and shouldn’t completely negate any proposed salary increases.

Ward 4 Alderman Tony Fields agreed with Gray.

“We did approve some raises for some employees (this year), and I think that needed to be done so we could retain the quality of people we have,” Fields said.

Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce-Arceneaux Mathis said a freeze is not out of the question, but she would like to see another avenue pursued before the board votes to halt hiring altogether.

“I think we should do a survey on all of our personnel,” Arceneaux-Mathis said. “We have people we are underusing. Some people may have expertise we are not aware of that we can move around.”

Dillard wants to see the city go one step further and consider cutting employees in order to make ends meet.

“Reducing the number of city employees and maybe even going into furloughs needs to be considered,” Dillard said. “To get to the end of the year and turn our pockets inside out and say we’re running out of money is not OK.”

Brown, though, said the board should wait before initiating any kind of freeze, and trust that the city is sound financially.

Brown also said he challenged the city’s employees and payroll increases from 2012.

“Sounds like both numbers are really high to me,” Brown said, adding that he wasn’t confident numbers provided by the clerk’s office were correct.

 

Previous administration

Mayor Jake Middleton, who was in office before Brown, from July 2008 to June 2012, said trimming salaries and cutting employees was a large part of his mayoral term.

Most budget cuts, Middleton said, could be attributed to employee layoffs and salary cuts.

“It’s a part of business, and it’s what we had to do,” Middleton said. “Financially when I left the office, the city was in pretty good condition.”

Included in the cuts while Middleton was mayor was a vote by the board of aldermen to cut their own pay by 10 percent, along with the pay of Middleton, City Clerk Donnie Holloway and Natchez Municipal Court Judge Jim Blough.

“I’m not saying I was crazy about it, but it had to happen,” Middleton said. “We were heavy on employees when I took office.”

Middleton said a depressed economy coupled with an inflated city staff was what really sparked the cut in city employees.

“If someone left, we didn’t try to replace them,” he said. “I guess you could call that a hiring freeze.

“We even reduced the amount of police officers on the street. We were down three or four officers, and we said ‘let’s try and make it work.’”

When Brown took office in 2012, the board voted to reinstate those salaries to their original amount — excluding Ward 3 Alderwoman Sarah Carter Smith and Ward 5 Alderman Mark Fortenbery, who chose not to take the increase.

“I had just become (an alderwoman), and I didn’t feel comfortable taking that increase,” Smith said.

Fortenbery said he didn’t think the reinstated salary was necessary, and the city should save that money.

Brown said he decided to reinstate aldermen salaries because there was ample money to do so.

“We had the money and there was no need not to do it,” he said.

As of May 2015, Fields, Dillard and Gray earn approximately $1,858 a month.

Smith and Fortenbery earn $1,672.48 per month.

Arceneaux-Mathis earns $1,431.46 per month. Her salary is less because she draws retirement from the state; she was employed by the state for 30 years as a schoolteacher.

Brown, who earns $3,083.72 a month, also draws retirement from the state from his previous governmental jobs.

When Middleton was in office, he took home $5,235.02 a month.

Brown argued he would be happy without a paycheck.

“I don’t need the salary from being mayor,” he said. “I’m independently wealthy.”

With Brown’s decreased earnings, he saves the city more than $25,000 a year compared to Middleton’s salary.

With reinstated aldermen salaries, however, the city packed on approximately $6,600per year.

Holloway’s reinstated salary bumped him from $3,787.48 per month during Middleton’s term to $4,208.70 under Brown’s administration — a $421.22 increase, totaling approximately $5,400 increase a year.

Likewise, Judge Jim Blough’s salary increased from $4,050.96 a month back to $4,499.90 — a $448.95 monthly increase, totaling $5,387.28 a year.

When accounting for increased city spending and salaries, Brown said total city revenue has increased since 2012 thanks to sales tax.

“Of course revenue is up,” Brown said. “Just on sales tax alone, we’ve gone from (approximately) $5,400 to almost $5,800 (per month).”

And with Natchez’s 300th birthday in 2016, Brown said he expects those numbers to rise.

“We’re projecting over a million people to visit in 2016,” Brown said. “That will generate a lot of money, too.”

 

Budgeting for next year

With the city on the cusp of the 2015-2016 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, officials are saying — regardless of freezes or cuts — that the city needs a firmer grip on its financial state.

“Until the city clerk’s office has last year’s audit in house and the current finances straightened out with accurate information in our hands, nothing is off the table as far as cutting jobs and lowering salaries,” Ward 3 Alderwoman Sarah Carter Smith said. “For now, I think a hiring freeze and raise freeze should be implemented until we are confident in our financial situation.”

Ward 6 Alderman Dan Dillard said he plans to make a motion to initiate a six-month hiring freeze at 6 p.m. Tuesday during the board’s regular meeting in the city council chambers, 124 S. Pearl St.

“The mayor is pretty much the store manager, but the board of aldermen represent the people and their money,” he said. “We need to make sure we handle that money well.”