In 30 seconds
- The council met in special session September 8 on one subject: police overtime and the September 7 sick-out. All six council members were present (the clerk's spoken count of five was a misspeak — attendance verified against the video); no vote was taken and no formal action came out of the meeting.
- Police overtime through August stands at $199,212.93 against a $110,000 budget line for the whole year. The treasurer's mid-meeting email put the same period last year at $157,211.34, mostly at lower pay rates.
- On September 7 — the first day of the administration's new 8-hour schedule, which replaced 12-hour shifts to curb overtime — officers called in sick. Chief Sanders says he covered the city alone from 6 a.m. to roughly noon with assists from state police and the sheriff, and that every call for service was answered.
- The chief's position: overtime is a staffing problem. He says he needs about nine more officers and loses recruits and veterans to neighboring departments over pay; one recruit is in the academy, due out near Thanksgiving, with no commitment to stay.
- Where it landed: the 8-hour schedule stays, overtime now needs an approval form through the administration, and the over-spent appropriation gets cleaned up at year end. The city attorney relayed a request from an investigative agency to protect criminal-investigation overtime, saying more felony cases have been filed this year than in any year past.
Recap
Why the council was called in
The mayor opened by tying the special call to the police department schedule changes and handed out one packet: three payroll reports on police overtime . His timeline: the overtime budget for the year was $110,000 , he warned the council and the department in April that spending was nearly at capacity, and June, July and August reports showed consistent overtime anyway. On August 24 an email marked urgent told both fire and police that overtime was being overhauled , and by September 7 the police department was to move from 12-hour to 8-hour shifts.
September 7: the sick-out
On the first day of the new schedule, officers called out sick and did not report . Chief Sanders told the body he took every call himself from 6 a.m. to roughly noon , with help from the Arkansas State Police and the Phillips County Sheriff's Office, and said no call for service went unanswered. Inside one 90-minute stretch he worked a domestic call, a fight and a hit-and-run alone . By the afternoon of September 8 the mayor said officers were no longer calling in sick.
The numbers
Police overtime through August: $199,212.93, against the $110,000 line . Some officers took home as much as $3,000 of overtime in a two-week pay period . The packet breaks it down: $29,271.91 in July alone and $19,757.78 in August . Mid-meeting, Councilman Etherly read the treasurer's emailed comparison: $157,211.34 through the same period last year , most of it at the old, lower pay rates.
The chief's case: it's a staffing problem
Under questioning led by Councilman Joe St. Columbia, the chief's short answer was more officers — about nine more to be fully staffed . Recruiting is losing to pay: he described a candidate who had sold everything to join, then took a county offer about $3 an hour higher . Starting salaries read into the record: Forest City around $38,000-42,000, Marianna $18.35 an hour, Augusta-area $20, against Helena-West Helena's $19.23 certified rate . Councilman Don Etherly laid out the council's side of the history: former Chief Bailey asked for entry-level raises to fully staff the department, and the council granted what was asked . One recruit is in the academy now, out around Thanksgiving, with no commitment to stay ; the department has a single part-time officer .
The task-force defense and the investigations warning
The chief defended the overtime as casework, not padding: joint operations with the FBI, DEA and drug task force, with his three investigators now reassigned to patrol . The city attorney told the body an investigative agency had called him on his way in: more felony cases have been filed this year than in any year past, and without overtime for the criminal investigation division that joint casework slows to little or nothing .
Questions from the table
Council questions ran at both the chief and the process. Councilman Dr. Kyle Miller named the perception problem directly: is the city being held hostage by overtime . Councilwoman Maxine Miller said the conversation should have happened before the sick-out, calling the day very concerning for the community . Members also pressed on recruiting, part-time officers as gap coverage , and — from Councilman Dr. Kyle Miller — whether officers understand the cap is a budget measure and not a judgment of their value .
Where it landed
No motion, no vote. The mayor asked the body for ideas and said his fix is an overtime approval form through the administrative office , and that in his opinion the 8-hour schedule should stay . The working understanding, said aloud at the table: the mayor manages overtime day to day, and the council cleans up the over-spent appropriation at the end of the year . Part-time staffing may be revisited .
The documents
Everything the council had in front of it, summarized. Page stamps open that page in the document desk.
September 8, 2026 Special Call City Council Meeting Agenda
One-item special-call agenda: call to order (clerk), prayer and pledge, roll call (mayor), then New Business limited to police department schedule updates — a conversation about the scheduling changes within the department — and adjournment.
Text document — see the agenda link below.
Police Overtime Report — Earnings Detail (YTD, July, August)
The single handout before the council: three payroll reports on police overtime. Pages 1-5 are an earnings detail for pay dates January 1 through August 31, 2026, listing every officer's overtime by pay date, hourly rate and dollar amount . Page 6 is the July employee-earnings report: $29,271.91 of police overtime across 1,015.90 hours for 13 officers . Pages 7-8 are the August earnings detail: $19,757.78 across 692.06 hours . Most officers' overtime rate is $28.85 an hour; the highest July earners logged 205.25 and 169.00 overtime hours.
| July police overtime | $29,271.91 (1,015.90 hours, 13 officers) | |
| August police overtime | $19,757.78 (692.06 hours) | |
| Common overtime rate | $28.85/hour |
Transcript
Auto-generated from the meeting video's captions and lightly cleaned for readability — wording is kept as spoken, not corrected, except that caption-garbled names of city officials are normalized against the roster. Speaker names follow the attribution work in our governance record; a ° marks a name our reviewers have not yet verified. Every timestamp plays the city's video from that moment. Watch the full meeting ↗
1:20
Roll call Roll call (attendance) — present: Maxine Miller, Dr. Kyle Miller, Adrian Messina, Joe St. Columbia, Don Etherly, Monica Davis. (Attendance verified in the Workroom review by Robert.) The clerk's spoken count differed from the verified attendance; the verified attendance stands.
2:27
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you. So, we do have a quorum with five members present today. Um, being that this is a special call meeting. Uh this is as we all know in part uh as it pertains to recent changes with the police department schedule um and the updates that have happened. You only have one um handout in front of you outside of the agenda. That is a handout of over an overtime report that contains three specific reports um and we'll go through those. The first report is a year-to-ate look at overtime for the police department. So everything from uh January 1st through August. Uh the second report is a report month in July and the third report for the month of August. So we'll look at all three of those. Um that's what's packet. So um I want the chief is here today and I'm going to yield the floor to him uh briefly but um I want to give a quick timeline of just some of the changes and maybe I should get into the mic a little more. I want to give a brief uh timeline of some of the changes that were made over the last month um and somewhat over the last couple of weeks. So, April of this year, if you all remember, I alerted the council and police department that overtime spending was nearly at capacity for budget um for what was set for this year. For this year, our budget for overtime for police was $110,000. That's what we said we would um budget for. The directive was for the department to contain overtime as much as possible uh moving forward through the rest of the year. So, um my stance has been that overtime can't completely stop, but we have to monitor it a lot more closely so that uh we're not um we're not spending taxpayer dollars unnecessarily. June, July, and August reports reported consistent overtime usage despite the directive for a shift. August 20th, the city council approved new vehicles for the police department. And I shared with the chief that over time um would be capped. Monday, August 24th, at 1:46 p.m., an email marked urgent was sent to both fire and police departments that overtime was being overhauled by the administrative department. So, there was an email sent to both fire and police for the same reason. Overtime's got to be slowed down. The course of action stem from the fact that both departments were over budget as related to overtime. Both departments were instructed to create new schedules um to change new schedule changes to curb overtime when not necessary by Friday, August 28th. The email also contained an overtime request approval form for circumstances where departments may need it. So, I want to emphasize overhauling overtime and capping it is not the administrative department's way of saying that there will be no more overtime. overtime just has to be slowed down. So what we've implemented has been an over overtime approval um form that is uh that can be found through the HR office. Um, Wednesday, September 2nd, it was um it was noted by the by HR department that 12 shift 12-h hour shifts were still set for the police department, allowing police officers to earn an extra four hours of overtime per day that they completed a single shift um barring any extra hours that they may have made up for someone else. Also on Wednesday, September 2nd, um the chief did respond via email to share his thoughts about switching from a 12-h hour shift to an 8 hour shift, stating that safety was the main concern amongst those shift changes. Friday, September 4th, a reply was sent to the chief stating that the concerns were noted and would still we would still move to an 8 hour shift um by Monday, September 7th. Monday, September 7th, yesterday being the first day that the new schedule would take place, so that the city would be good stewards of finances that residents entrusted to us. Monday, September 7th, Chief Sanders uh called uh the mayor's office or the mayor at 6:42, this is yesterday, at 6:42 a.m. and 12:22 p.m. to acknowledge that officers called out sick and were not reporting to work. The first day, um I I'll remind you of the new changes. information was officially shared at 10:06 p.m. in special department and a special department meeting was called at 2:30 where I joined the department for um a whole department meeting at the justice complex at 2:30. During the special department meeting at 2:30 um I explained the changes to the department directly so that they would understand the purpose behind the changes and asked for any clarity that they needed. concerns from the police department mentioned namely also stemmed from around safety but also touched on pay that they were or were not making in current positions. Um as that point came up at different times throughout the conversation. I assured the department that all concerns did not fall on debt fears that I will begin to work and look for solutions immediately u with the council but also the chief of staff and that taxpayer dollars were not free money to tie that we could tie into 12-hour schedules. At 8:45 this morning um I met with Chief Sanders again and the chief of staff to understand how the new schedule was progressing and if any adjustments needed to be made. And as of approximately 12:59 this afternoon, I spoke with the chief to understand and understood the officers were no longer calling in sick. So um and I want to I know that uh Dr. Miller also simultaneously kind of sent this request out for um a meeting, but uh we did have officers call out yesterday. Um the call outs were due to sickness. Um and my assessment I do believe that the new schedule um capping it capping schedule time from 12 hours to 8 hours taking out direct overtime was part of that. That's my assessment and um what I share with the department was um it's my belief as mayor that for the city to run effectively every department has to be equipped as as best equipped as it can be. And we have a situation currently where that's going to take some being some creative thinking and some um out of the box thinking that sometimes um but their trucks that they just got or the vehicles that they just got that you all approved on August 20th was something that I noted. Um I did not directly propose the bonus. Um the raise and salary was not directly my idea that I put on the agenda back in um late this summer, but I know the previous mayor, Mayor Franklin, um and this council discussed that and we did put that on the agenda and we did get that passed. So part of the conversation was um amongst this group was how does overtime continue to look in the future? And um we're here today because I think that that schedule actually kicking off in part was not necessarily um ideal for some folks. So um I do want to yield to the chief because [snorts] I know that this body may have questions. I think it's great that the chief is here and um open up the fork for discussion.
9:42
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders Basically just what the mayor said. Uh I received a call Monday morning yesterday. from dispatch. Uh, nobody was at work. I proceeded to take calls from 6:00 to roughly 12:00 p.m. 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. by myself. Uh, I finally got a hold to some of my officers. Again, some showed, some didn't. The ones that didn't did call in sick. Uh, I received some assistance from state police and the sheriff department. Uh but I will note every call for service was answered by Hel was held in the police department. There was no call left unanswered. The city had covered while from 6 to 12 it was just me. Every call got answered. I do appreciate and commend the officers that did show up and work elbow to elbow with me. And again I do thank the Arkansas State Police and Philips County Sheriff's Office for specifically also. I yield the floor to you all for any questions you may have. >> So, this was 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. was where we had the the coverage issues. >> Well, I would say it was a safety issue. I was by myself, but >> Yes, sir.
10:54
Unidentified I answered every call for service, >> but but the I'm just I understand.
10:59
Unidentified Yes, sir. I know you're very confident that 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. is that
11:06
Unidentified Yes. >> Okay. And then um the officers that came in, were those regularly scheduled or these were officers who were not called?
11:15
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° The one that came um he wasn't scheduled to work the time that he came.
11:20
Unidentified Okay. >> And he worked later.
11:22
Unidentified So he came earlier. >> He came early. He was on vacation.
11:26
Unidentified I got >> technically he wasn't supposed to be there at all that day. >> Okay.
11:29
Unidentified Yesterday. >> Okay.
11:31
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° I called. He answered. We got it taken care of.
11:35
Unidentified Okay. And then the um >> the the other two that came, they were on schedule. They worked their shifts. >> Okay. Now the uh this earnings detail, have you looked at it? >> Yes.
11:47
Unidentified Okay. Is this is this just their earnings or is this also included?
11:51
Unidentified That's including overtime. >> How do we know what's overtime? What is there a separate category in? >> I don't know what y'all have when I thought it was separated. >> So what you all have and I should provide that context at the beginning. So what you have on pages 105 through five, okay, this is overtime as it relates to um every officer. So this is
12:11
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So this isrict strictly overtime >> um page 101 right after five and it's dated at the top um August, not August, but July 1st through July 31st. That is of overtime for the month of July. And then the final two pages are overtime for the um final month of August. So, I'll share with you a little bit of what I shared with the department yesterday. And and these conversations, um, I want to be honest and candid. They're not fun. Um, I I I shared that in as as many details or as many ways as I could with the department. Um, if you look for yourself just through different um different or different payroll reports, um, in some cases, take home pay for overtime has been 6,000, then 5,000, it's been 4,000. It's not that's not sustainable. Um, today >> per month per per pay period in some cases per pay period. Cool. >> Um,
13:11
Unidentified to date, >> that for the whole department. Yeah.
13:14
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Yeah. For >> the whole for so >> there were some takehome periods for two weeks where officers had as much as $3,000 of overtime. So I I'll direct you to um back of page five out of five. So July, the month of July. Um as you look at July, it's the sixth page in your packet. Um you can look down the totals. um the highest earning officer for that particular um pay period was for that particular month was 6 thou was right at 6,000 right now 6,000. So there are some high totals coming through um the police department in terms of what payroll people are taking home and my assessment was that it was because of how we were structuring the schedule. Um I do know and and I feel like I've been on record for saying this. I believe that city employees definitely need to have um higher wages. I think that some of our wages across the board are not where they should be, especially in 2026, but we have to do that in a way that's responsible and a way that makes sense. So, um looking at these reports, I just want to draw your attention page five out of five. As of right now through August, our total um police overtime is right at $199,212.93. And again, our budgeted line item for the year was 110. And it's my and I want to say this, it's my understanding that I mean 110 100,000 has kind of been an arbitrary number that we've used for overtime and and if we needed to amend or adjust that number, that's what we would do. Um and we're at a point now where where overtime just has to be slowed down. So that so that's what the report is to show you just kind of some of those um high totals. What is what is your thought on correcting all this all this old time? What what do you think? I mean, you're in the
15:30
Joe St. Columbia the mill doing it involve overseeing this. How do you feel you can cut this out? >> We just need more officers. That's in the short in the short answer. We just need more officers.
15:43
Unidentified More officers. >> Yes.
15:47
Unidentified How many do you board do you need? I think fully staffed probably we had I probably need like another nine officer.
15:58
Unidentified You need nine more. >> Yes.
16:00
Unidentified Is what you need. >> And what are you doing to recruit those? >> You have the slots and they're open,
16:11
Unidentified right? >> Uh and you have occupation to fill them,
16:15
Unidentified correct? So, uh, what are you doing to get those slots filled so we can cut out this whole time? >> I would say what I'm doing, but I'll speak for the whole department. U, every officer carries application. We're talking to everybody. Um, I'm at the college three, four times a week. Everybody that I talk to that I feel like is a qualified applicant, I'm trying to get them in. We just got a hit on Indeed. Uh, we we're online and everywhere. We're doing everything we can. Uh, I tell you a story that I told the mayor. I had a guy sold everything. He was ready to go. The ideal officer the county offered him about $3 more dollars. He called and said, "Thank you, but better opportunities." The officers that I did hire when y'all agreed upon the waves, uh, the ones that left is better opportunities, more money, uh, different divisions, they just they said they just wanted to grow their career. Okay. Yeah, overtime was down at one point. I I'll say that we lost officers. They most of most of them left and it wasn't because of the city. It wasn't because of departments. It was they got offered better jobs or better money. What it came down to. >> And when we asked for our raise, we asked for it to be competitive. >> To be more competitive,
17:40
Unidentified right? Have you uh spoken to the mayor about this problem you're having? Have you discussed you you have discussed this with the mayor?
17:50
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° And u given the city's financial uh situation right now, I think a another raise is totally out of question. We need equipment and everything. Uh, I don't want to talk about water and garbage, but I mean, I know in [clears throat] my right mind that I can't come in here and say I need more money for my offices right now. The water, the water department works just as hard as us. The fire department work just as hard as us. Street and sanitation works just as hard as us. We all need more money. The mayor has been on record every meeting.
18:26
Unidentified Every city employee is under paid just doing all we can right now to bring in qualified applicants. And you've discussed this solution with the mayor in in previous meetings, >> correct?
18:39
Joe St. Columbia Okay. And [snorts] as a council, as a city council, what do you feel if we can do to help you and the mayor get resolve this problem?
18:53
Unidentified In the short, it it go back to the dollar. That's that's why we can't really retain or get anybody. >> But again, I do understand the city's financial strength. Correct. If we increase the officers, the new new recruits uh bottom line and starting pay, you think that'll help and then more money for the regular hours. You think that?
19:17
Unidentified Sure. Most definitely. >> We cut out this overtime
19:20
Unidentified once we get fully up staff. >> And what amount do you feel necessary that we need to that you negotiated with? That's a great question. Uh, we run towards the bullets. We run towards the chaos. We run towards the fight.
19:37
Joe St. Columbia I mean, you need to be competitive. >> That's kind of put a number on that. I mean, I'd say minimum 50,000.
19:48
Unidentified We do the job that I can't. People tell us every day, how do you do it? I couldn't do what you do. We need to seek a solution and we need to find the problem to solve it and uh you need to get with the mayor because we did not know you know what you need and unless you tell us the council itself we were unaware of what your negotiations with the mayor I think I think he's been on record for saying for saying this. I'm not putting the blame game on anybody. But as soon as I said something about raises, I looked around the room. I saw heads going down. I saw faces. I'm not ignorant to the fact of where the city is right now financially.
20:36
Unidentified I understand. No. Right now, I do. But that's part of the reason I hadn't came. I just understand it. >> Mr. St. Columbia. I I I I think we ought to be clear about what the record of this is, the history of it is though. Uh then Chief Bale was at over at the department last spring, maybe last March. He made a whole presentation to this body and his presentation was if you raise the level of the entry level to a certain point, then I can fully staff my department. The concerns then particularly that I had was that if we didn't fully staff, we'd be paying overtime at at a an increased rate. But the proposal was made to us and we gave them what they asked for. We gave it to them. >> Yeah.
21:27
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) So, we didn't hold back. That was the proposal that they made. The only thing we held back on was the uh the high ranking officers and then we did that in February of this year. So, we didn't It's not like we did, we did what we were asked to do.
21:43
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) Yeah. Right. >> Now, in terms of what it takes to keep people in the department, I don't know. Uh uh that'll be u something for the mayor and the chief to resolve, but we've done everything that we've been asked to do in terms of pay with the police department.
21:56
Unidentified Well, you came before us and you asked for more police cars. We gave you correct >> what we could afford to do,
22:03
Unidentified right? And we we're trying to do everything. The council is trying to do everything. >> I appreciate that to help you.
22:10
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders And >> I going I go on the record for saying when we got ours, everybody around us pretty much went up too. So I mean and Chief Bale I go on record for saying this. I mean
22:21
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders I worked under him. He had maybe I say easy I know for sure 10 officers. I promised them they were coming if we got it. Their cities went up. They didn't come. That's why my parenting officers that that stood side by side with me, they didn't get their raise. They waited, I don't know, maybe another eight months before they got their raise. They were training officers, new officers, and they were making more than they were. That's why I asked her and Mary announced, "Let's go back before you guys." I think they stood in the gap long enough. And then I hired X amount of officers. I believe it was 10 at that time. However, they some left just do the better opportunities. >> Well, we want to do everything we can. We as a council want to do everything we can to help you resolve this situation. And you need to get with the mayor and and let make a proposal as to what is necessary and the action we need to take as a council. >> No.
23:25
Unidentified I'm not. If if I may, part of the issue that that you all and I are discussing is actual the the finances of it. Uh when when Chief Bale made his presentation at the time, we were trying to match what other departments making that was about $17 an hour. But when Helen West Holden went up to to $17 an hour, all the other apartments went up above that. And so I just text the mayor, the chief of Forest City, he said them starting Saturday between 38 to 42. Chief of Mariana says their starting salary is $18.35. Uh other cities are saying they're $18. I tested the chief of Augusta. He said their starting salaries now in Woodro County are $20 an hour. And so people are raising their salaries. And that's what the chief was trying to articulate to us is that the salary that we approved last year was to match everyone else and everyone else raised their salaries and we didn't. And that's that's the discussion we are now to Ma's point. Mel did say and and he to remind everyone of it. This is a cycle until you get to full capacity that we're going to continue to have overtime. It's we have to get to to full capacity. And this is Mr. Etherly's concerns. He said he can articulate better than me. He stated it before >> is that uh if we're not at the full capacity, you're going to continue to have overtime, overtime, overtime, overtime. You end up spending the money. this meeting though. I think we're talking about in a little yesterday. >> Yeah. Yeah.
24:53
Unidentified And like I said, we did meet with the officer yesterday.
24:58
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders Money came up three, four times. >> I heard something about safety 50 times during that meeting. >> In our current schedule, six days out of the week, it'll be two officers working at all times. That's what I heard. That's those are the facts and that's what they were voicing. Uh, I put that in my email when uh I was talking to the mayor, expressing my concerns. We still went with the schedule. I had a meeting with them last Saturday and let them know. This is the new schedule and everything. Uh, I worked out there. One officer, two officers become one very fast. I know from yesterday I had a domestic, I went to a fight, I had a hit and run. I worked all that within an hour and a half by myself. I I don't say I was scared, but I was cautious. My adrenaline was pumping.
25:53
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders So I I get what they feel and I understand the mayor's perspective, too. Like we got to be better stewards of our money.
25:59
Councilman Dr. Kyle Miller (Ward 1) I get I think and I'm definitely hearing and I respect what you're saying. I think the thing that was kind of a concern is and this it this could be completely perceived. just not necessarily was was you know as as a city are we being held hostage because officers doing overtime and it's like that's just not responsible and I'm not saying necessarily that's what happened but that was a perception >> and and and so in a situation like that I think those things need to be communicated. I don't think I don't think there's anybody that's sitting here at this table that's not expecting that police officer gonna get overtime. At least I wasn't. I was never in my mind thought that we would not pay overtime. I knew that that was going to happen. But on the same token, it's like you got to also get a get a handle. I mean, I'm sure you probably looked at some of these numbers. Some of these people's overtime is better than some people's checks, regular day checks. I mean, you know, and I know that's all that's, you know, you're comparing maybe apples to oranges, but but but the but the thing is, you know, just guys, get it. Let's get the overtime down. Let's cut the hours back some we can all work together on this. That I think at least that's where I'm coming.
27:14
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders I can get you all information because I'm going to say it because I know it to be true. But uh we asked them to do a job and I asked them to stop waiting on a call to go find it. I'mma wholeheartedly say that every diamond of that overtime was justified. How many operations have we worked with the FBI, DTL, DTF, DEA? We're working side by side and those are hours. And I've I've counted where they've called me like, "Yeah, we're not on the clock, but we're going to go do this with ATF. We're going to go do this with that with this entity." The number of operations that we have done this year that probably been more than the past 10 years.
28:01
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders So, it's being accounted for. I mean, and that's going to slow down. I mean, it is what it is. We're asking my investigators to work patrol right now. That's what we're doing. My three investigators are assigned to patrol. When we get cases, they're working full-time patrol. It's going to take a minute for them to investigate. Going to take a minute to get case files in. We're asking them to essentially do both. But our call volume is high. It is. I'm going to say it how it is. Our call volume is high. I ask the citizens now, please, I apologize in advance. Please try to be respectful to my officers, but with two officers working, there's going to be some late response time and our training. If there's if there's a domestic, we're both foreign to it. If it's just two of us. Sorry, ma'am. I'm sorry if you had a hit and run, but we have to prioritize what we're doing. I mean, we I'm looking at I'm looking in in the future like what's to come with two officers working
29:10
Unidentified money. I get the money. I do get it. I promise. I hound on about. Do we have a comparison from this time last year to look at?
29:20
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Um I think I think that's a quick email to the uh treasurer to get that. Sure, we can. It's Yeah, I'd be interested just to see. I mean, because if what the from January,
29:35
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° we get the good job after the FBI comes in and we do indictments with them. We get the good job after we do X, Y, and Z, after we work with the state police. It's awesome. The DT the DTF right now have been working with my investigator since they have to work fulltime control. Now they're not threatening but he's talking about sending a bill to the city. They wasted hours. We use their buy money because I don't want to come to the city for it. We use all their resources and it's really thrown out. It's in the garbage right now. My investigators are working patrol and while she was working most times I don't know when they're going to do X Y and Z. One of the concerns that I have and I understand everything that you're saying and I empathize with everything that you've said regarding your officers and how they feel and their safety and all that. I truly do. I do have an issue though with how this was handled. I'll just be very frank. Um when you said that uh let's see the officers there was an officer who came who was not scheduled. He was on vacation. And you said there were two others who they were or were not? >> They were on schedule.
31:08
Maxine Miller They were on schedule. To me, we should have had this conversation before that. If the officers were not happy, concerned, didn't feel safe, whatever the issues are, which are all valid, it would have been better to call a meeting prior to what happened yesterday because that was very concerning for the community at large. You know what I mean?
31:42
City Attorney Andre Valley That that's all. One of the things I want to remind you all that if you're over overtime, you need to consider the the appropriation for the overtime. Uh you all still need to consider that uh because we need to maintain u authorization for overtime. And I say this to everybody at the table. I was I came in 2 minutes late because I received a phone call from an agent, an investigative agency and what they asked me to tell the body, tell the mayor and everyone. I just got it right before I came in. Consider also altering to allow the investigation to go on. There have been more felony cases filed this year than in any year in the past. And with officers working the streets, they either need the agency to hire additional people or allow overtime for the the criminal investigation division so that they can continue with this because some of the investigations they said to me to tell you all that some of the investigation they've been doing since January and they made a lot of leeway with them, but they are going to slow down the impact to little or none if C cannot continue to do what they're with the other agencies. They didn't want the agencies to be mentioned, but they wanted to make sure that there's multiple agencies that are working with the police department. And to that and to that point, thank you, attorney. To that point, that's the point or that's the purpose of an overtime approval form. Um, it's not that there is no more overtime. Realistically, we cannot cap overtime for and this is not the fire department also had a similar conversation as well given their overtime totals. We cannot say that between today, September 8th and December 31st, there will not be another emergency or issue where overtime has to be used. Um, thus the best fix that I um put together was a an approval form so that anything that does get approved in the event that we have to continue investigations is specific. It's not a daily schedule where you accumulate this over time just I don't say just because um but ju you accumulate that daily that we can sustain that. So there are pathways to make sure that those conversations continue and that will be through an approval form that goes to the administrative office. So um overtime just in case anybody's leaving the table saying well there's no more overtime that's not it's it's got to be approved now. That's where we That's where it is.
34:31
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) What are you asking us to do? >> Well, so when I had the meeting, I'm not I don't necessarily haven't asked um particularly. I did tell the department yesterday that I was going to get to work by trying to figure out if you all had any extra thoughts around maybe a specific aotment overtime throughout the rest of this year. Um any other solutions that you all probably would be okay with or consider and um I think this was more of a of a cause to have a conversation around just what happened yesterday, the fact that there is a schedule change. And so I am asking um are there thoughts around I mean my my suggestion is the overtime approval fall. So can't can't realistically say there is no more but it has to be monitored because we're already pretty much close to 200% or 100% of what we allotted for. Um [clears throat] so that's one measure that I put in place but I'm interested to hear if you all have any other things that will create a happy medium for the situation with it. Well, approval of overtime certainly is in your backyard. That's a day-to-day operation. So, you you have the authority to approve it or not approve it. At this point, the ship is sailed on approval for additional overtime because they're they've doubled it up at this part of the year. So, my suggestion would be to just wait and clean it up at the end of the year because we don't know what it's going to be going forward. Um I I think everybody here would agree to do that. They've already been paid for the time that they worked and at this point it's over 200,000. Uh, based on what I'm looking at, I know this reporting period ends in August, but we're in September now, so we know it's over 200,000. Um, so I guess going forward, my request is that we control it and keep it at a level that it has to be. I understand what Mr. Val is saying, city attorney, about ongoing investigations. I certainly wouldn't want to hamper any of those and what they have going on. Uh but uh anything that's excessive and not needed has to be cut out. Um the overtime during this period last year is probably lower because the the increase pay didn't start until I want to say it was sometime in in the summer. So just by sheer numbers, it's going to be lower. I don't know uh personally what it is, but it's going to be lower. And then they brought on a lot of new officers after we increased the base pay. So the this the staff level was was higher. All that being said, this is yeah, I'm not often at a loss for words, but when I read this report, I'll just say it was disheartening. Uh because it this this hurts us as a whole. I mean, this is that's a lot. it it sets us back in terms of what I would hope our goals are in terms of managing our our finances at this point. And so, um, I would just encourage the department by through Chief Sanders and mayor to have to find a way. We have to find a way. Um, I have some other thoughts that I don't think should be shared at this table. Um, but that's kind of it. would you be so kind to share with the officers to let them know their value to us? I know that sometimes whenever you start having conversations about money, it the the >> this isn't about money.
37:55
Councilman Dr. Kyle Miller (Ward 1) No, no, but listen, but in a way it is. And I'll tell you why. Because when it when you say when you tell someone, hey, uh you're not going to be allowed to accumulate overtime. and this this employee cuz I've dealt with with my employees and they're saying but I'm I'm doing my job. Are you saying that my job is not valuable? And that's where the question value is. And so if there is a conversation, it's just a dollars and cents thing. It has nothing to do with their value because because what they do and what this what the police uh department does for us is extreme value. It's of high value. So I don't I just don't want them to process that like this is a personal attack on us and them to perceive that we're saying what they're doing is not important because it's extremely important. The case in fact is important is that we're having a meeting today because we were concerned about the safety. So, so if you know if they can work you know with the mayor and his mayor uh puts those you know those safeguards in place on what you know on what he considers to be of um of of a right you know budget then just work work with him as much as you can. >> I'll go on record one more time. I know the narrative is out there. Every officer that I've talked to, they hadn't said one word to me about money or overtime.
39:18
Unidentified Yes, sir. >> They said that it's going to be two of us out here. That's what they told us. >> Yes, sir.
39:22
Unidentified Now, that's just what they told me. I don't know. >> Okay.
39:27
Unidentified How the other narrative got out there. >> I I haven't heard the other narrative. I I'm just going from my own personal experience of of having staff. And when you start talking about cut cutting pay or cutting overtime, people perceive it like you have. Oh, so you're saying I'm not valuable and that's good. We we know the police department's right. We can't do anything without the police department, which you know, we just want to convey that if there's conversations about cutting overtime, it's not it's not an attack on your value. It's we're just basically trying to watch our budget. So that's awesome. We appreciate y'all.
40:05
Maxine Miller I mean, I would think that I mean, mayor, correct me if I'm wrong. I mean, I would think that because I understand if you've only got two officers and you've got a situation where officer has to take or escort a family to the hospital because there's been something happened, but then you've got the other officer who's still on the scene. I mean, I would think that there would be some sort of um understanding or may maybe the mayor could approve having another officer come in so that the safety is assured or at least helped a little bit. I mean, is that going to be part of it or >> That's going to be part of it. And I was waiting for this meeting to see if there were any outstanding ideas or solutions from this body. But um one of the officers I think I think one of the officers yesterday asked you know if I'm physically in a fight am I supposed to stop to call the chief who then is supposed to call you?
41:00
Mayor Joseph Whitfield So it's like obviously that's not going to be feasible. Um so the best and smoothest way to do overtime approvals will be to give guidelines on what will qualify. um the 8 hour schedules in my opinion should stay because it's not sustainable and I think the way that we can show that we're trying to work with the department is making those sustain or not sustainable but making those understandings clear in these scenarios. >> Yeah, make make the judgment call.
41:31
Unidentified There's no big exception there. There's going to be exceptions. There's going to be times going to have to happen with trying to w uh M the treasur Mr. Turner has emailed all of us while we're sitting here.
41:43
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) Okay. >> Uh over time through this through the same period last year was $157,21.34. And again, most of the the um the year was at the reduced reduced pay level. So I don't know proportionally if it's the same or not, but
42:00
Unidentified numerically it's it's uh about $43,000 left.
42:05
City Attorney Andre Valley There are two or three financial things for you all to consider. one, it appears that almost everybody on here is making $1923 an hour. Uh the overtime rate is $28.85 and looking at it and that it appears that they do testing and promotion. We haven't done any testing and promotion to move people up so you can hire other people. Uh and so all those are financial considerations that you going forward as relates to day-to-day. The mayor is responsible for day-to-day. I just want you all to keep in mind that you have to look strongly at your budget because you need to hire additional people and promote people. Uh but your starting wage is 1923 according to these calculations.
42:46
Unidentified It's competitive. >> That's certified. I mean uncertified was mostly what we're going to get is 1682. Right. So you still have a competitive wage 1923. >> Yeah. What starting teacher was? >> Sir,
43:03
Unidentified it's about what a starting teacher would.
43:06
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders We ain't You said starting teacher. >> Well, not Well, it depends on which district. >> We ain't babysitting kids. I just want to go on record. >> No. And I understand. I understand.
43:16
Unidentified I I get that. I get that, Miss. >> I get that. I do. I ask I go home to educate every day. in this day stream. But yeah, so yes, which is I was just doing a compare which I know you should never do that. I was just comparing another probably
43:37
Maxine Miller another I was comparing another professional, you know, group to another which I know you probably shouldn't do. I'd also like to encourage you um and it was something that I really myself didn't care for either, but when I worked for I was a traveling speech pathologist and I used to get speech pathology services go going in nursing homes and things like that and we were required to do time studies and they're a pain. I mean, they really are. But it may help you a little bit, you know, in your scheduling process because they're probably peak, not always because you're going to have crisis happen on different days and be different times of the night or whatever, but there's certain maybe peak days maybe uh peak periods during the week, peak time at night, maybe I don't know,
44:38
Unidentified peak time like the summertime typically peak RP holiday season for us >> and holiday is special.
44:49
City Attorney Andre Valley I have just general question for the the mayor and the chief. Uh the the issue is we we you informed the body as to the issue and the city council is only in charge of finances and real property. Are you do you have a financial action asking the city or you're just the city council? You all are just making a presentation. I don't have a in this meeting. I knew what it was about. So >> I think Dr. Miller and I mutually kind of simultaneously I sent an email before I checked my email and um one I think his was concern and mine was also for just acknowledgement of the fact that there was someies yesterday. So there's no ask other other than if and I think has been answered that there was um alternative ways to consider.
45:36
Unidentified Yes sir. >> I thought I thought the I guess the unspoken agreement was that you would manage overtime
45:45
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) and then we'll clean it up at the end of the year because we don't know what's going to happen the rest of the year. So that that's I think that's
45:53
Unidentified just any other discussion on on the matter at all. >> No. Do >> uh I do have u do you have any uh recruits or do you have anyone in the academy right now?
46:08
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° I have one in the academy right now. >> You have one?
46:10
Unidentified Yes. >> And when will he be out of the academy?
46:14
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° He will be out at the end of November. I believe it's right before Thanksgiving. Do they have any commitment to stay?
46:21
Unidentified Say again. >> Do they have any commitment to stay after they finish? >> No, they do not.
46:26
City Attorney Andre Valley No, but if they leave within a certain time period, the state law authorizes us to write letters to the other department that they're hired from to reimburse us a portion of the expenses that the city spent.
46:38
Unidentified Are we following up on that? >> We do it very in Arkansas. We can't get anything out of state. Okay. Right. Are we utilizing uh do we have very many part-time officers?
46:54
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° One.
46:59
Unidentified How many how many part-time officers? >> We have one part-time officer.
47:03
Unidentified One. >> He's been there 50 years and he been there 40 years. 50, right? I mean, is that a consideration? Maybe use part-time officers to kind of fill in some gaps that may >> 100%. The last time I checked, I parttime officers make 1150. >> They said I thought I was told I'm not running towards the ballistic for 1150. >> And I guess to that end, that's something that we could have discussed, you know, before. Now,
47:37
Unidentified I brought that up. >> Well, there's been no proposal made. I missed that. I don't and I don't I don't remember that but I mean if we fixed it
47:46
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders when you were pro Tim you asked me about part time
47:49
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) man I that's I did a whole lot of >> Did you get a salary for part
47:53
Unidentified did you give a a proposed salary for part time I don't remember
47:56
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders I didn't I was still fighting for my officers that would get paid 1450
48:00
Unidentified I understand well maybe it might be something we re we revisit so
48:10
Unidentified any other discussion Not I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So move
48:17
Unidentified second being ajourned. Thank you all. Thank you chief
How this page was made: built from the city's own meeting video (YouTube ↗) and its posted meeting packet (Drive folder ↗). Dollar figures are quoted from the documents; nothing here is paraphrased from memory. Corrections: cheekforhelena@gmail.com.