By Kyle Roberts
Prior to Tuesday night’s Lincoln Parish Police Jury meeting for November, various committees met including the Personnel and Benefits Committee and the Finance Committee to discuss an employee compensation study and the 2024 amended and 2025 proposed budgets.
Committee members Karen Ludley, TJ Cranford and Logan Hunt along with chair Chris “Moose” Garriga were presented a study by members of Gallagher Human Resources Compensation Consulting via Microsoft Teams to discuss the findings of a study to help the LPPJ with employee compensation structures for most of its 162 employees.
Gregory “Big Coach” Williams was absent from the committee meeting.
The study began in June of 2024 with the goal of getting employee salaries within the police jury closer to market value, with the hope of attracting experienced and quality candidates to come to Lincoln Parish. It reviewed salaries of parish employees and compared those to other areas including Bossier Parish and various comparable counties in Arkansas.
“The Police Jury’s goal was to examine the competitive job market within the government sector and conduct a comprehensive comparison of LPPJ’s salary structure to the market,” LPPJ Treasurer Michael Sutton said. “We are hoping we will be able to establish pay ranges and benchmarking standards utilizing appropriate salary data to ensure market competitiveness and implement a comprehensive compensation model to assist with recruitment and retention within the Police Jury workforce.”
Various options were presented, and the committee selected a market aligned structure option that will quickly address 56 of the 162 employee salaries at an expected cost of $186,430 and then 61 more salaries for years of service for $86,027, bringing the total to $272,457.
“The option (we recommend) keeps everything consistent, but still maintains the integrity of market alignment, which was the whole point of doing this,” Sutton said.
Historically, the LPPJ has given 2.5 percent raises across the board, meaning any of the salaries that did not fall into the recommended option will receive the 2.5 percent increase.
The cost of the compensation study was a one-time fee of an estimated $30,000.
The Finance Committee met afterward to discuss the 2024 amended and 2025 proposed budget with Sutton offering highlights of particular items that were worth noting.
In particular, the LPPJ hired an animal patrol officer in 2024, which increased the 2024 amended budget from $15,000 to $21,000.
“There were some expenditures this past year we weren’t prepared for,” Sutton said. “We’re still kind of getting our feet wet on what to expect.”
A line item for janitorial services was added for 2025 for $90,000, which is for the expected use of Jani-King of Monroe for custodial service in various buildings in the parish. The money will be offset by a decrease in paid salaries and wages that had been paid in the past.
Sutton also noted that a server had gone out this past year and was replaced for $13,000, which was part of security camera equipment that is almost 25 years old.
Other items included construction equipment repairs and purchases.
The ad valorem rate was also adjusted from $1,385,400 in $1,430,160 in taxes collected in the 2024 amended portion.
Finance Committee members in attendance were Dan Lord, Matt Pullin, Garriga, Diane Richards and Chair Joe Henderson.
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