The City of Minden kicked off its first workshop for the 2027 budget on Wednesday, July 1, with city officials focusing much of the discussion on proposed pay raises for employees while balancing the city’s long-term financial outlook.
All members of the Minden City Council were present except Councilwoman Latasha Mitchell of District C.
Although Wednesday marked the first public budget workshop, Mayor Nick Cox said city administrators had already completed eight revisions of the proposed budget before presenting it to the council.
“Before we start our workshops, we wanted to bring to you a solid budget, one that we think we can live within. We tried to be as supportive of the departments throughout the city as we can be,” Cox said.
Among the options being considered are a 4% raise for all city employees, a 5% raise for all employees, or a plan that would provide a 4% raise to most employees while increasing police officers’ and firefighters’ hourly wages by $1.
Under the proposal, the Minden Police Department’s starting hourly wage would increase from $15 to $16. A 4% raise alone would increase starting pay to $15.60, while a 5% raise would raise it to $15.75. The Minden Fire Department’s current base pay is $11.05 per hour.
City officials said the proposal including the additional $1-per-hour raises for police officers and firefighters would leave the budget approximately $250,000 in the red.
Cox said he believes the city can comfortably afford a 4% raise across the board.
He added that the city has made significant investments in projects that are expected to strengthen the sales tax base in future years, making it more prudent to approve smaller raises now and revisit employee compensation next year after evaluating revenue growth.
Councilman Andy Pendergrass said the proposed budget demonstrates the council’s emphasis on public safety.
“I think that if you sent these numbers to someone who didn’t know Minden at all and asked them what this council cared about, I think they would say this council and government cared about public safety more than anything else by far,” Pendergrass said. “This council has invested more in public safety than maybe any [other] in the history of the city.”
Cox said both the police and fire department budgets have increased approximately 25% since the current council took office.
“We have police cars for every officer — roadworthy ones at that. That’s a huge difference from when we started, and that’s a credit to our police chief, the fact that he fought for the guys to have running cars. We’ve come a long way in a short time,” Cox said.
Police Chief Jared McIver said revisiting employee pay annually would provide encouragement to officers.
“Agreeing to revisit pay increases annually would give hope to officers,” McIver said, rather than leaving them to believe it could be years before another increase.
Councilman Michael Roy suggested developing a three- to five-year compensation plan to better prepare for future salary adjustments.
Cox credited two financial factors with improving the city’s fiscal position since the current administration took office: higher interest rates, which have allowed the city to earn more on its reserves, and steadily increasing sales tax revenues.
He said those additional revenues have been directed toward public safety initiatives. The city has also used federal American Rescue Plan Act funding and grant dollars to complete long-term capital projects.
Fire Chief Williams thanked the council for its continued support but reminded members that firefighters were previously promised a pay increase that was never implemented.
He said firefighters were scheduled to receive a starting wage of $11.34 per hour in 2022, but current starting pay remains $11.05 per hour. Williams asked the council that, if it approves the 4% raise for all employees, it also consider restoring the additional 2% increase firefighters were previously promised.
Any approved pay increases would apply to the base pay for new hires as well.
“I don’t think that it’s a horrible idea to inch up the pays for everybody; inflation over the past four years has been a beast on everybody,” Cox said.
Before concluding the workshop, Pendergrass asked department heads to review their individual budgets to identify any possible cost savings that could help offset proposed salary increases.
The council will continue budget discussions during its next workshop on Monday, July 6, at 5 PM in City Hall. The regular council meeting will follow at 6 PM. The public is welcome to attend.