PRAIRIE GROVE CITY COUNCIL : Committee wants more research on full-time mayor
Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2008
PRAIRIE GROVE — Aldermen on a committee looking into whether to make the mayor a full-time position met Monday night prior to the regular City Council meeting and told other aldermen they want to study the issue more.
Alderman Paul “ Murph ” Pair, spokesman for the committee, told aldermen during the council meeting that more research is needed before making any kind of recommendation for or against the matter.
Among the items that need to be researched, according to the committee: a job description for the mayor position, financial feasibility and how retirement pay would be handled.
Others who serve on the committee are Aldermen Buddy Lyle, Fred Collins and Matt Shreve.
Prairie Grove Mayor Sonny Hudson, who recently retired from his full-time job at Arkansas Western Gas Co. after 35 years, has said he believes Prairie Grove deserves a full-time mayor because of growth.
He did not make a comment about it during the regular council meeting, but Alderman Eugene Hamilton said he has heard negative comments about the idea.
“ I sure don’t find very many people on the plus side of this, ” Hamilton said.
But Pair said that those people probably never followed Hudson around to see what he does.
“ I think the timing’s not good on it, ” Hamilton said.
Pair said he has only received one comment, and it was against making the mayor position full time.
Larry Oelrich, the city’s administrative services / public works director, has surveyed cities in the region to find out what mayoral salaries are. The survey includes cities in Washington, Benton, Carroll and Crawford counties. Cities in the survey have populations between 2, 500 and 10, 000.
While there are no smalltown mayors in Washington County that are full time, one of them, Johnson Mayor Lonnie Barron, is paid an annual salary of $ 45, 000. Johnson’s population is estimated at 3, 500.
Prairie Grove’s population is now estimated at 4, 200, second only to Farmington among small cities in Washington County.
The part-time mayor position in Prairie Grove pays $ 500 per month, or $ 6, 000 per year. That salary has not changed since 1984 when it was increased from $ 250 per month. Oelrich’s survey states that the mayors’ weekly hours vary.
One possibility — if the decision was made to leave the position part time — is to increase the pay for the part-time mayor, Pair said.
During the committee meeting, aldermen discussed how to pay the mayor, depending on how the position changes with different mayors.
Pair talked about the idea of changing the compensation after each four-year term, if need be, so the salary is not necessarily “ locked in. ” He said he has received advice from the Arkansas Municipal League on the legalities involved. He said he learned that at the end of each term, the salary can be rolled back, but it has to be at the end of the term.
He said some mayors may devote more time to the job than others and that it often depends on their other jobs.
The committee is looking at the possibility of budgeting gross yearly cost of $ 50, 000 for the mayor, but that is not all salary.
“ I’m strongly interested in us having a full-time mayor, ” Pair said. “ I think our only problem is the budget. ”
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