EXTRA: Salary study reveals just how underpaid Bossier City cops and employees are
What the City plans to do about it. One outcome: a property tax increase in 2025.
Salary study reveals just how underpaid Bossier City cops and City employees are. And what the City will do about it.
A salary study commissioned by the City of Bossier City reveals just how underpaid City employees and first responders are.
Cody Sauchet, senior consultant with SSA Consultants, reported the findings to the City Council at Tuesday's budget workshop meeting.
"Whenever we review positions for market valuations, we look at their job duties, level of responsibility, supervision, barrier to entry, including education and experience, any essential knowledge, and required certifications," Sauchet said.
"It is not based on titles. It is based on the core duties and responsibilities of the job," he added.
Sauchet said the report found that Bossier City police officers are 7% underpaid, based on comparisons with law enforcement agencies, including the Bossier, Caddo, DeSoto, and Rapides Parish Sheriff offices, and Alexandria, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe, and Shreveport police departments.
The recommended timeline for salary changes would be within one year, Sauchet said.
"Whenever you're talking about implementation timeline, what you really want to try to do is get as much done within one year as possible. That your budget can allow. Three years would be sort of the maximum," he added.
Bossier City Chief Administrative Officer Amanda Nottingham said the report's findings were "very eye-opening."
"Overall, I think this study showed 63% of our employees are below the market minimum," she added.
Nottingham also said that addressing the pay discrepancy issues was one of the primary focuses of the proposed City budget for 2025.
"Salary increases for citywide, all departments, total $2,558,958," Nottingham said. "This includes the state mandated 2% increase for civil service, fire, and police. And it increases pay for non-civil service employees. We use the data that Mr. Sauchet provided to get all of our employees up to the market minimum. And for those employees that are at the market minimum, and everybody else, it would be an additional up to 5%.
"The adjustments to police pay, where they were creating parity between ranks, between fire and police, we really wanted to make sure that we focused on the officers that are on patrol, that are out on the streets. We want them to know what a great value they are to the city and how much we appreciate them. And so those increases amount to approximately 10%," Nottingham said.
Firefighters would receive a one-time pay increase of $4,000 for each firefighter in 2025.
City to raise property taxes in 2025
Nottingham said the proposed 2025 budget is based on rolling property tax millages forward.
"That was not done this year, but that is an additional approximately $1.1 million, and three of those millages, three of the four, are dedicated to fire and police. And so in order for us to have a recurring revenue stream to sustain those [pay] increases, rolling the millages forward would, we feel like, be the best option to providing those increases for fire and police," she said.
Bossier news: Independent, reader-supported.
BossierNow's mission is to provide independent, conflict-of-interest-free news coverage of Bossier City and Bossier Parish. We are funded by our readers — not by out-of-town billionaires, deep-pocketed foundations, or dark money groups with a hidden political agenda.
Support independent coverage of Bossier news with a $5 monthly subscription. You can cancel anytime. Email addresses are never shared with third parties.
We welcome your input, press releases, and news tips at email@bossiernow.com.
I have been ranting and raving about all these tax increases at one time, while the cost of living is so high, especially groceries. It's all breaking me. But for THIS, I'll gladly sacrifice. We need individual officers to have reasons to stay for the long haul. It's better to have experienced officers out there rather than to keep having to hire new ones. If taxes were to DOUBLE, I'd have my electricity cut off, as long as it goes to patrolmen.