Provo PD seeks substantial wage increases to help keep officers on staff
-
- Provo police officer Kawai Kauo poses for a portrait in his patrol car at the Provo Police Department on Friday, Feb 28, 2020.
-
- Protesters hold signs as police officers stand by during the Marching For Racial Equality rally held outside the Provo Police Department on Wednesday, July 1, 2020.
-
- Members of the Provo Police Department, from left, officer Mana Semo, officer Kevin Fernandez, Master Officer Austin Williams, Sgt. Sam Sorensen and officer Isaac Asiata pose for a portrait outside the police department Thursday, June 18, 2020.
There is poaching going on in Provo, but it’s not about animals — it is the lateral changes and exits in the Provo Police Department.
“The market for police officers pay is very fluid,” said Daniel Softley, Provo Human Resources. “There have been significant adjustments in the tight labor department.”
Softley indicated that changes in police forces locally and nationally, societal changes and the desire to seek out a police career at all have changed hiring and payroll just in the past few months.
It is most noticeable in the seasoned officers who have command roles such as Captains, Lieutenants and Sergeants that are leaving for better pay.
It is also noticeable with new officers beginning wages. Recently, Salt Lake City raised their beginning wages by 30%. The police force was down by 70 officers that had left they needed leverage.
Softley said that is opening the way for cities to poach off one another and because benefits are the same statewide, it is the wages that need to be adjusted.
The Human Resource department recently completed a market analysis.
“Provo Police Department is open for poaching. We are fully staffed but functionally and operationally we are down by 10%,” Softley said.
Softley is proposing an 18.9% wage increase for starting officers and a 13% increase for command officers. For those in the middle, they are looking at an increase of between 13% and 18%.
For the city budget, that means a transfer of $750,000 for the next half of the budget year. For the budget year 2022, beginning July 1, that would double to $1.5 million and must be sustainable over a number of years.
“I see that as a real need,” said John Borget,” director of Administrative Services. “The 2022 budget will have to have a property tax increase to pay for the long term.”
While members of the council have supported the police department, the sound of a tax increase came across as a very big pill to swallow.
“Whatever we can do as a city — and we’ve tried to take care of them — I feel societal attitude changes haven’t been as much here in Provo,” Councilman David Harding said.
While Provo has built in advantages in the department, like a variety of jobs, other cities are poaching ideas as well.
“People aren’t telling their kids to grow up to be police officers. You didn’t see many kids wearing police costumes at Halloween,” Mayor Michelle Kaufusi said. “We are the county seat, we should be paying more.”
Societal changes may not appear to have changed here, but acting Chief John Geyerman noted that last year the department lost officers to other local agencies because their pay was better.
“We will lose experienced officers if we don’t make changes,” Geyerman said.
The desire is to raise the base and try to keep the bubble from getting any bigger, according to Wayne Parker, Provo Chief Administrative Officer.
For the council, that means they must mull this over and vote on it, knowing that come August they will most likely have to hold a truth in taxation hearing to raise city property taxes.
Six years ago, the council at the time voted to hold a truth in taxation hearing every year in case there was a need to raise property taxes so it would be in small increments. That didn’t happen.
It is not known what percentage increase in property taxes could happen next year, but like nearly everything else going up, homeowners should prepared for a potential city property tax increase in 2021-2022.
