In a 7-3 vote, the Little Rock City Board of Directors rejected an ordinance on Tuesday that would have increased their salaries from $18,000 a year to $28,000 a year.
City Director Antwan Philips was the sponsor of the ordinance and said the raise was calculated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics to see how much the cost of living has increased since 2013, which is the last time the Board increased its salaries.
“It’s been 10 years and I’ve shared this publicly, I don’t think anyone takes a job with the idea that they’ll never get a raise,” Phillips said.
City Director Virgil Miller, said he is for raising the salaries for board members, but doesn’t agree with the timing of the raises. Miller said the discussion of salary increases should take place when the Board is creating the budget for the 2024 fiscal year.
“We will be discussing the budget here in the next couple of months, I would think, certainly in September,” Miller said. “When we talk about that then certainly this ought to come up so that we can see if we agree that this is something we want to do as a Board. We put those things in the budget. At this point, there aren’t any funds in the budget for this.”
Multiple city directors shared Miller’s view that the raises should be looked at a later date.
City Directors Lance Hines and Brenda Wyrick said they are against any raises for directors. Hines said he is against the idea of the Board raising their own salaries.
“If we want to put this as a ballot item in the November election or next March to let the voters decide if we deserve a pay raise, I am in favor of that,” Hines said. “I also have a huge issue with providing benefits to us as part-time employees, when we don’t provide the same type of benefits to our actual employees.”
In 2013, Hines also voted against an ordinance to increase salaries for city board members.
