Council comments generally favored a tax proposal to generate money to boost police and fire wages, but they raised questions that are to be answered next week during a second meeting on the question.
City Manager Nick Edwards described the recruitment and retention of public safety workers as “a significant problem for us,” and one which city administrators have been working on for at least a year, although police and fire and city officials have been at odds over wages for at least five years.
The city manager proposed asking Joplin voters in August to impose property and personal property taxes in the amount of $1 per $100 assessed valuation. For a $150,000 house, the tax bill would come to about $285 a year, and for personal property of $30,000 it would be about $100, the city manager said.
He pointed to problems discussed the previous week by a consultant who conducted a police department study that pointed to wages as a chief contributor to high turnover rates in the department, particularly the patrol division. That division has been operating with various shortages over the last several years, but it was found during the study to have nearly two dozen too few officers, creating heavy workloads, the consultant said.
Edwards told the council the consultant also identified other factors contributing to the loss of experienced workers as job burnout because of a high workload carried by officers and quality-of-life issues such as work schedules and beat alignments in the city that were time-consuming to cover and made the jobs undesirable.
An old pension that covers police and firefighters that has been changed in recent years has encouraged experienced officers over the last two decades or so to leave their jobs after 20 years because they can retire and get their pension contributions returned in a lump-sum plus retirement benefits.
Edwards outlined proposed wage increases compared with existing wages and said the city needs $9 million to start new pay ranges for police and firefighters.
But the city is limited on financial options to fund the plan because it does not have any options left on sales taxes that would generate that amount of money a year. That’s why a property tax is sought, the city manager said.
Some, not all, police officers would see $10,000 a year increases under the plan, making $47,000 starting pay for a trained police officer and starting pay more than $44,000 for firefighters.
Council member Mark Farnham said there are a quarter of a million visitors who come into Joplin almost every day and use Joplin amenities. He said they do not pay property taxes for that and that the school district taps into property tax to fund its projects. He asked if the city talked to state legislators to grant a variance to the city’s half-cent public safety sales tax for a larger amount to lower the amount of property taxes needed.
Edwards said the “short answer is no” because he did not think the Legislature could act quickly enough to help Joplin’s immediate situation.
Council member Kate Spencer also asked about seeking a legislative change to the sales tax law that would permit Joplin to pass a larger public safety sales tax than the existing half-cent. She also asked if administrators had looked other options such as grants, a fire district tax, or reallocation of the existing public safety tax.
“In our view, this is the best way regardless of what opportunities exist. But if council would like us to look (at options), I would be happy to follow up on that to the extent I can,” Edwards said.
Councilman Chuck Copple said more dispatchers are needed and would be necessary if more officers are hired. He said a plan for transferring public safety workers to a new retirement system is needed because a number of them will be eligible for retirement under existing 20- and 25-year plans.
Councilman Phil Stinnett said, “I don’t think there’s any question in anybody’s mind this has to be done” to get more officers on the streets. But city leaders have tended to make decisions too quickly. He supported Farnham’s suggestions that other avenues for funding should be explored.
“This is the biggest tax that’s ever hit the city of Joplin in my lifetime … and we don’t have a plan B,” he said. “What happens if voters turn it down?”
Councilman Josh DeTar said he agrees it would be good to have other options to look at but that would take time and could cost more police officers and firefighters leaving their jobs. “We can’t kick this down the road anymore,” he said. “It’s landed in our laps, and we have to do something about it.”
Councilman Gary Shaw expressed appreciation to the city manager for the work done to find a way to address the problem. He said that in the 20 years he’s served on the council, “there’s always been discussions about needs and not enough resources because city officials were reluctant to pressure people (for taxes). Right now we have to take our city back. We have to.
“Mayor Lawson said he doesn’t like property taxes,” Shaw said, “but he is concerned about the effect of adding more sales tax on retailers.”
The city manager said he will find out the details of state law on fire district taxes and will reach out to area legislators and see if the have thoughts on raising the sales tax cap for public safety. He said he also will develop a recommendation on whether to include money for more dispatchers in the proposal.
Reports on those findings and a discussion of the property tax proposal will be scheduled for a meeting next week.
The city manager said the council has to act on the question before May 23 to get it on the August ballot.