THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510050011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By JAMES K. SPORE
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
During the past several months, the leadership of the police employee associations has been engaged in an organized effort to achieve salary increases for police employees. We all agree that our professional police officers who put their lives in the line every day deserve to be fairly compensated. That's an important part of the reason the city of Virginia Beach has implemented a new market-based salary system for its 5,000 employees, including members of the Police Department.
The funding decisions we make, however, are not as simple as deciding whether our police officers deserve a higher salary.
Last year, a market salary survey of similar-sized cities and comparable private-sector positions was conducted by our Human Resources Department as the first step in converting to this new system. We realized we had a challenge ahead of us when the survey revealed that more than half of the pay ranges for city positions are below comparable pay scales.
This new system was developed with a sincere effort to openly share data with all employees and the taxpayer. An employee committee, including representatives from the Police Department, was extensively involved in developing the system and in making recommendations regarding allocation of the limited funds available for salary increases.
Our goal is to bring all of our positions up to the survey's 50th (median) percentile as soon as possible and to achieve the 65th percentile over the next few years. (Achieving the 50th percentile would mean that half the cities surveyed would pay more and half would pay less.)
Obviously, this goal is subject to the availability of revenues to support these efforts. By updating the survey annually, we can prevent our salary levels from falling behind the market in future years.
Adjustments to this year's pay levels were made using funds already earmarked for salary increases. Future adjustments will be built into the budget process. With the initial adjustments, the average police salary range was increased 10 percent, which will provide future earning potential. Most officers will be receiving 4.5 percent increase on the anniversary of their employment. Further, the market-salary-survey process has created an opportunity for employees who were at the top of their pay range to again be eligible for a merit increase. An additional 1.5 percent salary increase was provided to all employees whose actual pay level fell below the newly increased pay ranges. The net results of these increases should improve our ability to retain experienced personnel.
The new market-based system replaces the across-the-board cost-of-living (COLA) approach. With our new system, we were able to identify some positions that were being overpaid and many that were not being fairly compensated. This appeared using COLAs over the past 30-plus years.
Police officers perform a difficult and dangerous job, but we must be fiscally responsible when planning our compensation packages. It is not sound financial management to provide salaries from the end-of-the-year fund balance (as has been suggested by some) without accounting for the inevitable impact on next year's budget.
It has also been suggested that funds used for investments in tourism development, such as the holiday light display or the amphitheater project, be used instead to fund salary increases. These projects are investments expected to generate substantial new revenues. In Virginia Beach, tourism generates approximately $32.6 million a year in tax revenue. After expenses of $19.1 million (including $4.2 million for police, fire and lifeguard services), our net return is $13.5 million. This is a 71 percent ``return'' on our expenditures.
Increasing tourism is one area where we may be able to generate additional revenues to phase in future salary adjustments. It makes good economic sense for a community to grow its tax base to provide for public services as well as salaries and benefits for employees, and as a hedge against future economic uncertainties.
Claims by certain leaders in the police associations would lead the uninformed to believe that Virginia Beach has rampant crime, inadequate staffing and high employee turnover. In fact, FBI crime statistics of similar-sized cities reveal that Virginia Beach has ranked lowest nationally in overall crime rates, violent-crime rates and property-crime rates for seven consecutive years. We have a well-trained and progressive police staff. Unlike many other cities our size, we do not have a deteriorating inner city. Our citizens are actively involved in helping promote a safe city.
Additionally, we were able to allocate funds to increase staffing by 27 police officers in 1994 and another 19 officers in 1995. Departmental reorganizations have reduced upper-level management positions and reallocate more resources to the patrol level, where it truly counts.
Finally, our turnover rate in 1994 was 7 percent (about the national standard), including retirees and discharges. Only slightly more than 2 percent left for other employment. We continue to attract highly qualified candidates to our police force. We hired 33 police officers this year from a pool of 865 applicants. Although Virginia Beach police salaries have fallen below others in our regional (Southeastern United States) survey, currently we are competitive with other cities in Hampton Roads, where we recruit 85 percent of our police officers.
I join those in the community and among the police force who are thankful for and very proud of the services performed by our Police Department, and I am hopeful that we can resolve our fiscal differences in a reasonable and timely manner that is fair to both employees and taxpayers. MEMO: Mr. Spore is city manager of Virginia Beach.
by CNB