Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Buffalo Oklahoma Town Board
Hikes Pay by 5%
The Town Board of Buffalo, Oklahoma in a 3-1 vote agreed to give an across-the-board pay raise to all Town employees.
Citing differences between pay rates in Laverne, Oklahoma and neighboring Northwest Oklahoma Towns, Trustee Brown urged the passing of the pay increase.
The Buffalo Oklahoma Town Board proceeded to vote while failing to take into consideration the many factors surrounding the requested pay raise.
Granted, the labor force currently employed by the Town are paid a paltry sum for the requirements and tasks that are necessarily completed, however, a 5% pay increase across the entire employee spectrum entitles all employees whether they deserve it or not.
Editor’s Note:
Only one (1) Town of Buffalo Oklahoma Board Trustee voted against the all encompassing pay hike. Much to her credit, Mrs. Harper thoughtfully pointed out that increases in benefits having been put in place over the last few years were in essence pay raises and that it was unfair to raise every employees pay without considering many other factors in addition to the consumer price index.
The Town of Buffalo Ok. just gave the freshly hired, new-to-the-job, Police Chief a 5% pay raise. The most recently hired employee, just announced at the Town Board meeting this night, barely having gotten his/her feet wet on the job, just received a 5% pay increase. That makes it mighty difficult for the employee who has been on the job for the past year, making the exact same amount for the last year to fathom that a brand new hire is now making the same.
Discussion prior to the final vote to raise the payroll by 5% included comments from the audience. Buffalo Oklahoma’s ex-mayor, Mr. Carpenter, now an active audience participant, reminded the Trustees that a decision need not be made immediately, asking the Town Board to simply consider the request, collect necessary information and delay the vote until more data could be gathered. His wisdom was ignored.
Another audience member mentioned that by inclusively increasing everyone’s pay, the Buffalo Oklahoma Town Board was increasing the pay for all employees despairingly. A 5% increase for a Town laborer making $1,400.00 a month means he will receive $17.10 more per week., while management receives an additional $35.35. The distance continues to grow between the laborer’s pay, which was the main idea for the pay increase, and the pay of higher level employees.
An example is Buffalo's Town Manager. The Town manager’s base salary is $2548.00 per month with an additional $280.00 vehicle allowance. If the 5% pay increase takes into consideration his vehicle allowance, he will make an additional $141.40 every month. That’s over double the pay raise for the laborer receiving only $70.00 every month.
Once more, an audience member made the statement that each employee should be evaluated regarding their employment individually and not collectively. He continued that a communal 5% pay increase was not the way that most businesses handle pay increases. He mentioned that it is totally unfair for the employee who rarely gets to work on time, is a problem employee, takes time off regularly or goofs off on the job to receive the same exact pay increase as the employee who is always on time or early, does the best he can regardless of the situation and even remains late to complete a job.
A Buffalo Oklahoma Town Board member was then asked if his sister and father’s businesses can afford to make all-embracing pay raises? The question elicited a response from the Board member to the effect that: No, my father and sister’s businesses don’t make universal raises because they pay a fair wage already.
Editor’s Note:
That’s EXACTLY the point. Everyone, every employee deserves the right to make a fair wage. The current CPI is around 3%. Why not evaluate all the data. Consider the latest benefit increases and tabulate the percentages so as to determine whether each employee has received at least a consumer price index pay raise. Then evaluate each employee based on that employee’s status.
The Police Chief’s pay and the Trash truck driver’s pay was raised 5%. Not 3-6 months ago there was great debate about pay rates for these NEW Town employees. The agreement was that the pay structure put in place for these positions was equally comparative. The predominate rate State-wide was used as comparison data - BUT THEY JUST GOT ANOTHER 5% - Does that mean they are now making 5% more than the State wide comparative rate?
Each employee needs to make a fair wage. The consensus is that the upper level employees are already making a fair wage but the laborers are not. And that’s plausible given the fact that the laborer endures extreme weather conditions while crawling in and out of holes and ditches, reading water meters, operating equipment and laboring for the Town but for the citizens benefit. That in itself was the reason for the discussion regarding pay raises first mentioned by Trustee Brown.
Yet, prospective employees don’t get the benefit. This is where the Town Board lost their direction.
Any new hires are still at the old rate. The 5% only went to current employees. The Town can’t hire any new employees at the increased rate of a measly (whoopee!) $1,470.00 because the increase is only for current employees. For all those prospects rushing to City Hall for an employment application, sorry dudes, you’re going to have to start at $1,400.00.
Consider if you will the comparison to Laverne, Oklahoma.
Our Board must consider much more than just what Laverne’s pay structure is.
Our Trustees must consider factors such as:
- · What is Laverne Oklahoma’s Budget?
- · Is there any deficit in their budget?
- · What is their current revenue annually?
- · What are the percentages of revenue to payroll?
- · How many employees are there in Laverne?
- · Is their sales tax intake on par with Buffalo’s?*
- · What are their projected expenses for the next fiscal year?
- · Are they looking at upwards of $250,000.00 needing to be spent on sewer upgrades?
- · When using comparative data is the data actually comparative? Are we comparing apples to oranges? or apples to apples?
- · Are the responsibilities of their employees the same as Buffalo’s employees?
Yet none of these issues were considered. All in all, the audience’s input was ignored by the quorum and a rate hike was instituted.
*For the month of August 2008, by Harper County Oklahoma, by City reporting, Laverne Oklahoma received $36,626.89 in sales tax revenue while Buffalo Oklahoma received $11,416.98.
Based on these figures alone, Laverne can well afford to pay their employees much higher wages than Buffalo.
For September 2008 Laverne received $34,620.51 and Buffalo OK got 13,219.28.
These figures should have been taken into consideration before any pay rate comparison and discussion ensued.
One cannot compare data unless the data is itself consistently and unambiguously comparable.
Get ready to pay more for your water and sewer as the Town Board recommended raising rates for all water and sewer users Town-wide.
In a move prompted by the Department of Environmental Quality’s latest reprimand to the Town of Buffalo, Oklahoma regarding their wastewater facilities, the Trustees of the Town of Buffalo voted to raise the rates effective February 2009.
Board member Alan Bishop requested to raise your water bill by $7.00 monthly or $84.00 annually while also raising your sewer rates equally by $84.00. With approximately 650 water/sewer users in the Town, the Town is effectively raising their revenue by over one hundred thousand dollars during this economic downturn.
$109,200.00
A vote was taken and passed 4-0 for the rate increase.
Editor’s Note:
This was definitely necessary! With the Town facing probable fines in excess of $20,000.00 for their creative landscaping and failure to maintain the wastewater facilities properly thusly allowing millions of gallons of wastewater to flow into Buffalo Creek and onto adjacent properties huge bills for repairs and replacements are obvious.
The rarely maintained pumping facility and sewer ponds have to be re-engineered. New engineering studies, design and purchase of new equipment is imminent. The Trustees voted to pay for an engineering design for the sewer pumping requirements in hopes that it and the necessary equipment will cost less than a $49,900.00 proposed (and prayed for) REAP grant is bestowed upon the Town. Whether the Town receives the grant or not — these facilities need to be made modern and maintained regularly. Having a pump inoperable for 5 years is ludicrous. Having a backup pump inoperable since April 2008 is absurd.
Allowing wastewater to flow out of the holding lagoons because of ‘creative landscaping’ or because a backhoe operator went wild is not only bizarre, it’s... , it’s...,
It’s mind boggling!
