Hamlet emphasizes employee compensation in budget discussion

HAMLET — After two years of “restricted budgets” due to the county’s switch to an ad valorem sales tax distribution, Hamlet City Council members agreed that taking care of city staff is a priority in this year’s upcoming budget.

City Manager Matt Christian said that they’ve done well financially over the past two years, but only due to “extraordinary steps taken by City Council and staff to manage our money.”

“What hasn’t done so well the past couple years is our equipment, our operations, and most importantly, our people,” Christian said to the City Council. “We didn’t invest in our employees for two years. We did what we had to do, but those types of restrictions are unsustainable.”

Councilmember Abbie Covington and Mayor Pro Tem Jesse McQueen agreed with Christian’s assessment.

“All the good equipment in the world won’t do any good if the people are unhappy and don’t stay,” Covington said. “I don’t want to get in the position of ever having to choose capital over people. [City staff] are our capital.”

“People first, and then equipment and infrastructure,” McQueen reiterated.

Christian stated that he is looking at a COLA adjustment “across the board” for staff members. Hamlet city employees have not received a raise since the switch to an ad valorem sales tax distribution method in April 2020, which caused a drastic shift in the share of sales tax revenue away from the municipalities to the county.

The change to ad valorem caused Hamlet to have to adjust to a roughly $600,000 loss in revenue going into the negotiations for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. Last June, the county and municipalities reached an agreement that the county would disperse $728,910 among the municipalities in both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 fiscal years, with Hamlet receiving two installments of $240,234 from that.

The county notified the municipalities on March 10 that the same funding amounts would be included in the county’s draft budget for 2022-23, though municipal leaders have still expressed frustration that they had to absorb the losses at all.

“Really, what we need to do [after this budget], is a fundamental shift in how we structure our compensation,” Christian said. He added that’s he looked into some market-based comparisons on how Hamlet compensates their employees and ways that will push them to be more competitive moving forward.

The potential COLA adjustment will be discussed more in-depth at the next Hamlet City Council meeting.

Christian, in the outline of his goals for this year’s budget, said he wants to prepare a balanced budget that minimizes reliance on the fund balance. A major goal of his is the establishment of a capital improvement plan, which Covington called “imperative.”

After a series of meetings between Hamlet department heads and Christian next week, Hamlet staff will deliver those requests to Christian in advance of the April monthly meeting.

Councilmember Oscar Sellers inquired about each department’s need for new or upgraded vehicles. Christian responded that he expects those department heads to articulate their specific needs in their requests.

Hamlet fireworks set in motion

The status of Hamlet’s fireworks display was discussed among the council members. The traditional July 4th celebration was another casualty of the change to ad valorem; Council has voted to cut the funds for it the last two years as a way to save money.

Councilmember Eddie Martin emphasized the necessity of Hamlet’s display to take place on July 4, which is on a Monday this year, as opposed to Saturday or Sunday.

Christian said he will be in contact with a previous vendor they’ve used and bring forth a budget amendment to allocate funds for fireworks before their next meeting. Covington also said they need to coordinate with other municipalities so various community events in Richmond County don’t conflict with each other.

Frustration over ad valorem lingers

Hamlet’s total budget for this fiscal year is $7.5 million dollars. Their main expense, staff salary, including benefits, amounts to $6.4 million, leaving $1.1 million which Christian said “a small margin” to work with.

Covington called their budget “austere.”

“We can’t live with this sort of budgeting [long term],” she said.

McQueen said they’ve been historically conservative with their budget, and that people should recognize each municipality’s difficulties before the May elections.

“It’s horrible that we’ve been dealt the hand we’ve been dealt,” McQueen said, referring to the county’s change to ad valorem. “As long as I’ve been up here, we had pretty lean budgets. At the end of the day, we sit here and do what we’re supposed to. [The county commissioners] sit over there and spend money and spend money. Could you imagine if [the switch to ad valorem never happened] what we could do?”