JOHN COFFELTEditor

Manchester Aldermen Bob Bellamy and Ryan French agreed to disagree at the March 11 Safety Committee Meeting on how to best recruit and retain police officers.

Currently there are three open positions, with one being a newly created one. An additional opening is in Investigations due to an internal promotion.

Bellamy pushed for a $3 across the board raise in starting pay for patrolmen. French on the other hand felt the city should wait until a salary and benefits survey report is submitted, and then address the matter while discussing the 2024-25 city budget. French, instead, suggested the city offer $4,000 sign-on bonuses for certified officers and $500 referral bonuses for any employee who helped recruit a successful hire.

Both called the matter a pressing issue.

“Not saying they’re better than any other department,” Bellamy said, “Everybody in the city deserves as big a raise, as much money as we can give them.”

“Everybody around us is paying $4 or $5 per hour more than we are,” Bellamy added.

Safety Committee Chairman Joey Hobbs said that while the city pay is off in some areas, the starting pay is similar to that of other cities’ starting pay.

French said that in the short term policy need to be addressed to keep the Manchester’s pay competitive. He voiced concern of having a department with one third of the force having less than two years’ experience.

Bellamy said the reason Manchester has officers with less than two years’ experience is due to the pay rate.

French suggested the city not undermine the salary survey, saying a $200,000 problem can escalate to a $1 million problem in very short time by chasing salaries of other departments.

Bellamy disagreed with that assessment.

“The immediate need right now is more officers,” Bellamy said. “If we don’t give them money, we may come in here and 10 open (positions) open instead of five. We’re getting to the point … that we won’t have the personnel to give the citizens what they need if we don’t do it now.”

“We’re bleeding to death and we’re going to continue to bleed to death until after July (when the new budget starts.) I realize that only three of four months, but it don’t take but one afternoon to kill somebody,” Bellamy said.

French felt he did not have the information he needed to make an informed decision on pay.

“I think it would be irresponsible to do it without all the information we need,” French said, asking if Bellamy knew how much the raise would add to the payroll budget.

The city’s biggest hiring competitor is the Tullahoma Police Department, which has a starting pay of $21.49 per hour with a final top-out pay is $28.23 (with a 15-year step system over multiple pay grades).

Manchester’s pay is $21.80 for certified officer with a top-out of $23.21. Manchester patrolmen top-out after four years on the job.

Manchester has certain administrative positions with no system in place for pay increases. As with the Manchester Fire Department, personnel are working at the same rate for years at the same position with only city-wide cost of living raises being added to their salary.

Hobbs said that the salary study that was commissioned by the Board of Mayor and Alderman is due back. He said the next step is getting back with department heads before moving forwards.

“We paid about $30,000 for it,” Hobbs said. “We got it back and had several meetings with a smaller group to modify it so it could come back to us. We wanted a longevity part in there… look at a pay range versus a step and grade (component).”

Hobbs said the primary findings of the salary study shows that only a few positions not being paid correctly. The biggest problem was not starting pay but pay for the longstanding, most experienced employees.

“It’s a lot to unpack; it’s not just one piece of the pie, he said. “It’s not that we don’t pay well. We pay extremely well on the front end, but then we fall apart on the back in.”

Bellamy’s motion to recommend to BOMA for a $3 per hour raise, giving new hires $24.80 starting, failed for lack of second. French’s motion for the short-term bonuses was seconded by Bellamy and passes 3-0.

If passes, the $4,000 bonus will be split between $2,000 paid after the hire has completed probation period or graduation from police academy and the remainder paid after a year on the job.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.