When it comes to services provided by the City of Abbeville, whether it is critical life-saving services or services as basic as water coming out of your faucet, what are those services worth?
More to the point, based on a question posed during Tuesday’s special Public Safety Committee meeting, what are the people who perform those services worth?
Voters in Abbeville may have an opportunity to help decide later this year. The committee voted to recommend across-the-board raises for all city employees, including the Abbeville Police Department, the Abbeville Fire Department and municipal employees. Those raises would be funded by a proposed half-cent sales tax that would be placed on the May 4 ballot.
Both measures have to go before the full city council for final approval. The council is set to meet again on Tuesday, Feb. 5.
“There is a need to increase pay for our employees when you compare it to surrounding areas,” Councilman Francis Touchet Jr. said. “Right now, our budget doesn’t allow us to be able to do that.”
Touchet made a motion for the half-cent sales tax, one that he said would generate an estimated $1.4 million.
“It would bring our sales tax to 10.20 percent,” Touchet said. “That is the same as Maurice and Kaplan.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Mark Piazza and members of the city council heard from heads of each department, including Fire Chief Jude Mire and Chief of Police Bill Spearman, about the justification for raises.
“I think my need is justified in trying to keep people here and trying to hire quality people here,” Spearman told the council.
According to Spearman, who along with Sgt. Jonathan Touchet presented numbers on Tuesday, the police department has lost 37 officers during the past four years.
“That is at a total of $200,000 to train them,” Spearman said. “That is putting them through tests, getting them their uniforms and getting them on the road.
“Then they leave for another agency that is paying better.”
Spearman said he and Sgt. Touchet surveyed 29 agencies around the state that are plus or minus 5,000 of Abbeville’s population of 12,257.
“Out of those 29 agencies,” Spearman said, “Abbeville City Police is the lowest paid police department.”
The starting salary for officers at the APD is $20,150.
“When you look at the numbers,” Spearman said, “it can be anywhere from a few hundred, to several hundred dollars more that these agencies are paying, that these guys are leaving for.”
Fire Chief Jude Mire said a challenge for his department is not people leaving, but getting them in the door.
“I will get people coming to me (who are already certified),” Mire said. “I can put them to work and save the city thousands of dollars (in training). When I tell them they will make $22,000, even if they have 48 hours off between shifts to get another job, they don’t want to mess with it. I tell them we have great health insurance and great retirement.
“They don’t want to come.”
Mire said taking care of the lower level is important.
“It’s the starting guy at the bottom who needs the money,” Mire said. “Those are the guys who are going to be here for 20 to 30 years. That’s the future. Whatever we get at the top, we appreciate it, but those guys are the ones who need the money.”
Councilwoman Terry Broussard said the focus is to do what is best for each employee.
“We have employees who have dedicated 25-plus years to this city,” Broussard said. “We also need to look out for the guy who is down at the bottom.”
Councilman Francis Plaisance, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, agreed.
“We want to make sure that once we address this issue,” Plaisance said of potential raises, “that everyone would be able to benefit from it if we’re successful.”
While the city’s budget does not allow for funding of the raises discussed on Tuesday, Piazza did point out that the budget has included the 2-percent cost-of-living raises to members of the police and fire departments, as well as a 50-cent-per-hour raises for municipal employees.
“That has been in the budget year in and year out,” Piazza said.
Kelly Mire, an assistant chief with the fire department, said employees are thankful for all that the city has provided.
“We all know this is a numbers game and will come down to the numbers,” Kelly Mire said. “I don’t think there is an employee in this city who wouldn’t thank you for the insurance you provide us. That retains the employee. However, to get somebody here, they are looking at what buys the milk and bread. When it comes down to it, what are all of these employees worth? What are they worth to the citizens? They (citizens) are calling all of us when things are bad, often on the worst day they have had.
“It’s going to come down to, what’s it worth to the people of the city for these employees and the service that we give them?
