Kingman council backs pay study changes as policing recruitment pressures surface

City staff told the council that a compensation study of 60 benchmark positions found many city roles below market and recommended structural changes to the pay plan to improve recruitment and retention.

"Of the positions that we surveyed, 40 of the positions were found to be below market," the city manager said, describing a proposal that includes a 5% structural adjustment to the pay plan and additional targeted adjustments based on how far specific roles lag market comparators.

Council members focused most of the debate on public safety. Several council members said they were worried about losing lateral candidates to the Mohave County Sheriff's Office and urged the council to bring police pay closer to the sheriff's scale. Staff presented estimates for a proposal to align the city's entry and top-out pay for officers, sergeants and lieutenants with the sheriff's ranges: roughly $327,000 to get police fully competitive on entry and top out and about $172,000 to increase certain fire step increments.

Kingman's Police Chief (addressed in the session as the chief) told council that compensation is a major factor in recruitment but not the only one: "If I had to put a weight to it, I'd probably put 60% compensation," the chief said, adding that applicants also weigh schedule, equipment and career opportunities when choosing employers.

Council directed staff to develop a strategic recruitment and retention plan that would include options such as targeted sign-on or relocation incentives, hiring bonuses with time-bound clawbacks, and other incentives. Several members supported moving forward with the staff'recommended pay adjustments (the council referenced an "option 3" that would rebase step plans and move police toward sheriff-level entry and top-out pay), while asking staff to identify funding offsets in capital projects and transit operations to limit the one-year budget impact.

Tina, the deputy city manager, told the council that the compensation study increases would add just under $4,000,000 to personnel costs overall but that phased approaches and targeted compressions (for example, postponing merit increases for employees receiving large comp adjustments) could reduce the near-term fiscal impact. The council asked staff to return with a draft strategic plan and a refined cost scenario at the tentative budget meeting.

Next steps: staff will prepare a recruitment/retention strategy for council review and incorporate pay-option costings and proposed offsets into the tentative budget on June 2.