Arkansas Blog: More pay for Hays?

Word has been going around North Little Rock that Mayor Pat Hays wants a hefty salary boost. Any truth to that?

Boost yes, hefty not so much, says Alderman Murry Witcher, and not until a 2 to 3 percent raise for city employees has been enacted. He hopes that will happen in April.

Hays, who could retire at half his current pay of $90,000, has suggested he should make more, Witcher confirmed. Hays’ counterpart in Little Rock, Mark Stodola, is paid $160,000 a year. Witcher denies whispers that Hays wanted a 50 percent raise. A 25 percent increase, “if it is going to occur,” Witcher says, would be more appropriate. That would bring Hays’ salary to $112,500 (and would raise his retirement pay accordingly), but Witcher said “no amount” has been talked about, and stressed that “nothing is on the table” for now.

If Little Rock should be a benchmark for mayoral pay, what about police officers? The union has called for a raise of about $6,000 per officer to bring pay in line with Little Rock’s to stem a rise in resignations from the force. That would cost over $1 million a year, a sum Hays has said the city can’t afford.

UPDATE: Hizzoner says he would not accept a 25 percent pay raise "this year." If the City Council agrees to give employees a 2 to 3 percent raise, he'd like one, too, but that's it. But "nothing is further from the truth" that he's asked for more.

Hays acknowledged "chewing the fat" with folks about his salary, which he said at one time was the highest for any mayor in the state. And when he talked to the firefighters and police about their desire for parity with Little Rock, he said he told them, "Amen to that," given what Mayor Stodola and City Manager Bruce Moore are paid (Moore also gets $160,000).

"God bless Murry Witcher," he added.

Comments

Is it ture that the mayor makes a large amount of money from the vending machine business that he owns with his relative? I have heard that they have machines all over NLR including public buildings. Is that true?

Posted by: HankRearden | February 29, 2008 03:24 PM

Hays just wants to up his pay so when he gets booted when the idiocy of borrowing money to pay for electric use now causes rates to SKYrocket, he can retire with nearly full pay of his presednt salary.

Is that a run-on sentence or what?

A man his age could live 30 years longer and the extra 50% payraise would cost NLR $675,000 in higher pension over that time.

Get rid of Hays now and avoid the rush when either electric bills shoot into the stratusphere or a cut back causes NLR to lay off 1/2 their police and firefighters.

Posted by: Citizen home | February 29, 2008 04:21 PM

Hays is a big fat liar! He, or Murry Witcher (who has been carrying the mayor's water for years now), has been approaching all elected officials in the city testing the water for this big raise. How arrogant can you get?

What is he thinking?

Higher electric rates!
Personal, city hall gym!
High franchise fees!
Less police and fire protection!
New and rusting boats at AIMM!
New Roads for Developers in or around Argenta (his sacred cow)!
TIFs!

Apparently all this equals a gigantic raise for the Mayor???? Thanks Leslie and Max for the sunshine!!!!

Posted by: nlrkid | February 29, 2008 07:18 PM

NLR has experienced incredible transformation during the Hays Reign, and he is worth every penny and then some. Folks, NLR was a crumbling town 18 years ago. He stepped into the strong mayor role and stopped inner city murders by imposing a curfew and enforcing crack house laws. His strategy was copied by hundreds of cities in the US. He partnered with the county and the other cities to give us Alltel Arena--does anyone wish they were going to concerts at Barton? He paid for expanded bus service long before he helped bring about the streetcar. The riverfront and ships are going to be an attraction for years to come. Would you rather have used boat sales and sand dredges there, as they were 10 years ago? Electric rates are the same as the rest of the nation...now if you think that is the fault of Pat Hays, you have a serious backlog of newspapers to read. The senior center is PACKED with seniors...there is something wrong with getting seniors to stay more active, more involved with each other? Do you think there would be ANY professional baseball next season if we were still relying on the LR Task Force to make a decision about Ray Winder? Downtown NLR has the best new moderate income housing stock--single family, apartments, condos--of any location in the state. It has the best new restaurants.

I dont live there, I'm not related to the mayor, but his leadership and decisiveness have been nothing but beneficial for not just NLR and its citizens, but for all of Central Arkansas.
Give Him a Raise!

Posted by: Sanford | February 29, 2008 09:26 PM

I'm not saying Hays hasn't done a lot for North Little Rock over the past 20 years, but in this moment he seems to be on the verge of asking his city to sacrifice their fire and police protection in order to give him a 25% raise! This comes off as egotistical and insincere. He surely knew what the pay scale of a public servant was going to be when he decided to become one; and I guarantee he has used that excuse on the police, fire and other city employees plenty of times when they came groveling for a mere 3% raise. The city and its citizens shouldn't have to "ante up" at the end of Hays' career just because he has done "a lot" for North Little Rock. Appreciation, that is what awards are for...and haven't we already started naming buildings, landmarks, trails, boats, etc. in his honor? Sure, he has done great things for the city in the past, but elections are about now and what the person promises for the future. Now in North Little Rock, absent Argenta (the gleaming riverfront enclave), the infrastructure is crumbling, people are seeing money and projects going to developers rather than to the different neighborhoods, the mayor is inaccessible unless persuaded by wealth, times are difficult, rates and fees are increasing, the perception and reality of crime is rising, and public safety services are shrinking.

So, I say shame on him.

Posted by: nlrkid | February 29, 2008 11:38 PM

Sanford, as a resident of this city let me tell you what I found out regarding the as you call it, reasonable electric rates. I talked to an Arkla electrical rep in November to find out what the kilowatt hour rate was, which at that time of year is $0.55 per Kw/hr. By contrast, NLR rates for that same month are about $1.25 Kw/hr. Tell me what is reasonable about that since those rates are for roughly the same area of the city and state.

The city does outsource it's electric, yes, but at the same time, the contract was allowed to expire, resulting in a last minute deal at astronomical rates. The city finance person, Bob Sisson, was not able to give me a coherent answer when I questioned him about it. I am currently in the process of fighting with the electric company about a meter that is running high. To further complicate issues with the city, the electric of NLR city is not under regulations of any kind.

The man may have made the city look better, but the infrastructure is dying. Police officers in this city do not even have real insurance. They are underpaid and far overworked. The mayor chooses to ignore this. Citizens are leaving because there are no services when they are needed. The city under the leadership of Hays ignores the wishes of it's citizens and it's employees, with the exception of said mayor. If Hays is left in power much longer, the city will become so far destroyed that this time, there will be no coming back.

Posted by: Halo | March 1, 2008 10:46 AM

Arkansas Blog

More pay for Hays?

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