After a consulting firm finished the entire pay study sooner than expected, Statesboro City Council heard recommendations Tuesday morning not just for a lift in the police officer and firefighter pay scales but raises for all 330 or so of the city government’s employees.

No action was taken Tuesday, but City Manager Charles Penny recommended Plan A, the most generous of three options considered in the study, and asked that the mayor and council decide at the Dec. 19 meeting. Plan A would hike police officer starting pay from the current $45,802  to $55,477 annual and beginning firefighter pay to $50,259 from the current $43,564, as well as, eventually, provide roughly proportional starter pay increases in other departments. Current employees would get “equity adjustment” increases for their years of service.

“Plan A gets us far enough out in front of our competitors and it rewards city employees very well,” Penny told the elected officials. “Plan B rewards them as well; Plan C rewards them. However … if you implement the pay plan for public safety employees in January, please understand, the only increase that they will get from that point will be pay-for-performance … but they will go a full year and a half before this pay plan is adjusted again.”

Council members spoke favorably of Plan A but also discussed making only the police officer and firefighter raises effective in January while having the other departments wait until July 1, when the next fiscal year’s budget takes effect, for their raises. That would hold the projected cost of implementing the raises in the current fiscal year – which will be half over – to $428,748, reducing the effect on the city’s fund balance.

In comparison, implementing Plan A for all employees effective in January – Penny noted that it would show up in the Jan. 25 paychecks – would cost a projected $1.11 million for the six months from Jan. 1 to June 30. The cost analysis was presented by city Financial Director Cindy West, who told the mayor and council that the city’s unaudited general fund balance was a little over $7 million as of June 30, and that $5.7 million would be needed to maintain a recommended reserve of at least 25% of the year’s budgeted spending.

So about $1.4 million above the reserve threshold was available, she said.

However, West also presented a breakout showing that just about $535,837 of the cost of the first six months raises for all employees would come from the general fund, with $226,916 from the fire fund and $348,784 from the “enterprise” funds for fee-funded services such as water and sewer and natural gas.

The cost of proposed pay Plan A for a full 12 months would be a little over $2.31 million, according to West’s projections. So that would be the annual cost for fiscal year 2025, beginning July 1, 2024, and future years, if council fully implements Plan A.

Study completed

Originally, the human resources consulting firm Condrey & Associates had been asked to complete only the “public safety” portion of a compensation study by this month, so that the council might vote on recommended raises for Statesboro Police Department officers and Statesboro Fire Department firefighters to go into effect in January. Then the firm was to complete the study for other departments in time for any resulting raises to be adopted with the next fiscal year’s budget and go into effect July 1.

However, the entire study had been completed before the Tuesday, Dec. 5, City Council meeting. So city Human Resources Director Demetrius Bynes summarized the study conclusions, and West gave a brief financial analysis. The consulting firm’s president, Stephen E. Condrey, Ph.D., and vice president, Jan Hansford, participated remotely, appearing beside on screens beside the slideshow.

‘War for Talent’

The first thing Bynes talked about was how unemployment remains low. As he showed with a graph, Georgia’s rate reached 3.4% in September and October, having increased gradually since May after remaining at 3.1% for seven months, through April.

“There is a small percentage of people that are not working. So what we’re seeing is what I call the ‘War for Talent,’” Bynes said. “Employers all over this county, this region, the state of Georgia, this country are battling for quality employees.”

His presentation also cited data and conclusions from a labor market study that a different firm, Wadley Donovan Gutshaw Consulting LLC, recently completed for the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority, Gulfstream Aerospace and Georgia Power. As previously reported here, that study predicts that the region within a one-hour drive of the Hyundai Motor Group electric vehicle factory complex under construction in northern Bryan County will fall about 2,200 workers short of the needs of area industries by 2027.

Bynes and Penny cited competition from Hyundai and its supply manufacturers as driving a need to increase the city’s pay rates generally, as much to keep current city employees as to attract new ones.

Police concern

But Statesboro police had been singled out by city officials as in special need of a pay boost. After several years in which the department has struggled to fill all of its city-authorized officer positions only to experience recurrent turnover, Police Chief Mike Broadhead in October reported there were 17 vacancies – which still have not been filled – in the 79-officer force.

For comparison to Statesboro’s salaries, Condrey & Associates surveyed the Georgia cities of Canton, Carrolton, Covington, Dalton, Hinesville, Kennesaw, Lawrenceville, Pooler, Richmon Hill, Rincon, Rome and Savanah, plus the Bulloch County, Bryan County and Effingham County governments, about their pay scales for various jobs. The Georgia State Patrol and Georgia Ports Authority were also included for law enforcement salaries, Bynes noted.

Plan A represents 105%; Plan B, 102.5%; and Plan C, 100% of the “adjusted labor market” mean salaries, Bynes said.

To cite one key example, the Plan A police officer starting wage would, again, be $55,477; the Plan B officer starting wage, $54,215; and the Plan C officer wage, $52,955. This indicates that the average for police agencies surveyed was almost $53,000.

For current city employees, the “standard equity adjustment” suggested by the survey and recommended by Penny would provide a 2% pay increase for those with 1-3 years of service, a 4% increase for those with 4-6 years of service, and a 6% increase for those with 7-plus years.

This news story will be revised and updated with some other information for the Thursday, Dec. 7, Statesboro Herald print edition.