Proposed Dalton 2022 budget includes pay increase, no property tax increase

Dec. 8—The city of Dalton's general fund spending would rise 7.94% under a proposed 2022 budget unveiled Monday. Spending would rise to $37.138 million in 2022 from $34.407 million in the 2021 budget, with that spending increase driven mainly by the largest single-year pay increase for city employees in at least two decades.

Council members said they do not anticipate having to raise property taxes in 2022 and believe they will be able to cut taxes.

Council members held the first of two public hearings on the budget Monday. No one from the public spoke.

"The general fund budget is the main operating budget," said city Chief Financial Officer Cindy Jackson.

Jackson said salaries and benefits account for 63% of spending. The city has 367 employees. Jackson said spending on salaries would increase $2.7 million in 2022 under the proposed budget following a study earlier this year by Evergreen Solutions of Tallahassee, Florida, that reviewed city salaries and compared them to other local governments and to the private sector.

"We looked at our peer cities and found that we were way behind," said Mayor David Pennington.

The study looked at the pay scales of the governments of Athens/Clarke County, Calhoun, Cartersville, Catoosa County, Douglasville, Gordon County, Kennesaw, LaGrange, Rome, Whitfield County and Cleveland, Tennessee, as well as Dalton Utilities.

"We needed to get caught up and be competitive," said council member Annalee Harlan. "I think we've done our due diligence and can justify this. We've been clear that we want to attract and retain quality employees and our pay is going to have to be competitive to do that."

Pennington said city employees would see an average pay increase of about 8%.

"The police and fire (departments) will have a bigger increase," he said. "There's will be about 10%. We're not only competing with the private sector and other governments. We also have to keep up with inflation."

Inflation has been growing at an increasing rate all year. The consumer price index surged 6.2% from a year ago in October, the latest month for which data are available, the most since December 1990.

Council member Dennis Mock said he wasn't surprised to find Dalton city pay lags behind some peer cities.

"This is something we looked at and talked about when I was mayor (2014 to 2019)," he said. "I'm glad to see this has come to fruition."

Council member Tyree Goodlett agreed.

"We've known for a while that we were falling behind," he said. "We've been talking about this for a while. It's past time to get our people up to par with our neighboring cities."

The Dalton Police Department would be funded for 85 sworn positions in 2022. Five of those positions are currently vacant. Chief Cliff Cason said he doesn't have any numbers on people who have left during the past few years for pay reasons. But he said in the past year, two officers have left to work in state law enforcement jobs and one has left for a federal law enforcement job.

"We have seen an increased number of applications since the pay increase was announced," said Cason. "It is still too early to predict what impact the raise will have on our ability to recruit and retain qualified personnel. I am optimistic that it will give us competitive hiring advantage over many of the other agencies in our area."

The Dalton Fire Department is slotted for 97 positions including 88 firefighters. There are three positions open currently. Chief Todd Pangle said the department has lost three firefighters to better-paying jobs in the past 18 months.

"We currently do not have a systemic problem with retention, although we consistently lose one to two personnel every year to year-and-a-half," said Pangle. "Our issue lies mostly in our ability to attract candidates with experience. Firefighting is a physically demanding profession, and most applicants do not realize to what extent until they enter into the training."

Pangle said as many as 40% of recruits drop out during the 14-week recruits school.

"It is my hope that as a result of the pay increase and benefits we will be able to attract more candidates that have an understanding of the profession, which will result in a higher graduation rate from the program," he said. "The last three applications periods we have had less than five applicants with experience apply. Already in our current application period, which closes this Friday and opened last Wednesday, we have already surpassed that number."

In addition to the salaries increase, Jackson said health insurance costs will rise 18% to $666,000.

Council members said they feel comfortable with the budget that has been proposed.

"I don't anticipate any changes," said council member Gary Crews. "Cindy Jackson and the department heads have worked hard on it. I think it's in good shape."

Goodlett agreed.

"I met with Cindy, and we went into even more detail, and I feel this is in good shape," he said.

Mock said he has looked the budget over "pretty carefully.

"I've met with our financial officer and city administrator," he said. "I feel comfortable with this budget. Of course, we don't know what inflation is going to do and what is going to happen to interest rates. But I think we've been really conservative and will be in good shape."

What's next

The Dalton City Council will hold a second public hearing on the city's proposed 2022 budget and is expected to vote on it during a called meeting Monday at 6 p.m. in City Hall.