What do local officials make?

The six largest governments in the Shoals will spend more than $62.5 million this year to provide salaries and benefits to their employees, based on information obtained in a TimesDaily survey.

The total represents only the workers paid from the general operation budgets in Florence, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, Tuscumbia, Colbert County and Lauderdale County. Workers at various utilities departments and school systems in the Shoals are paid from separate budgets.

Perry Roquemore, executive director of the Alabama League of Municipalities, isn't surprised that salaries make up a large portion of budgets. He said that's common in the private sector as well.

"By the time you have salaries and fringe benefits considered, personnel costs typically are a pretty high amount," Roquemore said.

With the exception of Lauderdale County, the cost of salaries and benefits represents more than half of the entities' operating budgets.

In Florence, salaries and benefits make up 73 percent of the operating budget. When looking at the total budget of $46.9 million - which would include appropriations, money to repay debt and other categories unrelated to day-to-day operations - salaries and benefits make up 47.2 percent of the budget.

Salaries and benefits make up 61.5 percent of the operating budget in Sheffield, 56 percent in Colbert County, 53 percent in Muscle Shoals and Colbert County, and 46 percent in Lauderdale County.

"We've tried to take care of our employees," Muscle Shoals Mayor David Bradford said. "We want good, quality workers, and it costs money.

"It's a balancing act that all governments must do. You've got to pay salaries, with the benefits, to employees as well as the retirees and also provide services to the citizens. You've got to buy equipment, support the schools and on and on. You have to be fiscally responsible but you also have to realize that you can't provide the services people want without employees."

Costs associated with running local governments continue to increase at a steady pace, just as they do in the corporate world.

"When I began doing payroll in the 1980s, I remember the day when it reached $4 million. And I was staggered," said Jenoice Bevis, county administrator in Lauderdale. "It has become a business within itself."

Lauderdale County will pay just under $11.2 million in salaries and benefits this budget year for its 250 workers, a total that includes full- and part-time workers as well as elected officials.

Florence, as you might expect since it is the largest government entity in the Shoals, pays the most for salaries and benefits at $22.1 million. Colbert County pays nearly $9.3 million, Muscle Shoals pays $8.9 million, Sheffield pays nearly $6.9 million and Tuscumbia pays about $3.7 million.

Roquemore said paying good salaries is a good use of tax dollars, because they help retain experienced employees.

Providing benefits is becoming more and more of a challenge for employers, and Roquemore said decisions are going to have to be made about that in the private and public sectors.

"That's a budget issue that each city will have to deal with," Roquemore said. "The highest escalating cost is health-care coverage. It keeps going up, and I'm sure that will have an impact on things."

Muscle Shoals is one of only a few municipal governments in Alabama that has totally absorbed the rising costs of medical coverage, choosing to pay for the increases rather than passing the added expense on to workers. Dependent medical coverage is free for Muscle Shoals workers, another rarity among governments as well as private business.

As a result, nearly 10 percent of the city's operating budget goes to paying employee benefits.

"We've had to be innovative to do it, but we've been able to keep from passing on the extra medical costs to the workers," Bradford said. "None of us know if we will always be able to do so, though. It's already a crisis and we have no control over where it goes from here."

Roquemore and others involved in government operations say school superintendents, mayors, utilities managers and those involved in budgeting typically make more than other government employees nationwide. In many cases, the difference can be substantial. That thought is certainly typical of most Shoals governments, but not all.

The highest paid government workers in the Shoals are school superintendents. Of the six Shoals entities surveyed, all but one of the superintendents make as least $112,000 a year.

The school superintendent in Lauderdale County makes $99,812. The highest paid superintendent in the area is in Florence, with an annual salary of $134,373. Superintendents in Colbert County schools and Muscle Shoals schools make about $125,000.

Sally Howell, executive director of the Alabama Association of School Boards, said the salaries reflect the responsibilities that come with the job.

"Superintendents are essentially the (chief executive officer) of a small- to medium-sized corporation with hundreds of employees and multi-million-dollar budgets," Howell said. "They deal with legal issues as necessary and, most importantly, they hold the chief responsibility for the education of our future."

Howell also pointed out that another key difference between superintendents and other government officials is the educational requirement that comes with the job.

"In most cases, these are doctorate-level professionals," she said. "There's also a competitive factor in getting the most talent for the money when it comes to selecting a superintendent. That means the money has to be there."

Managers of local utilities departments also are compensated at a higher rate than other government employees. Although many people assume the mayor and council oversee utilities departments, board members make decisions involving those operations.

In Muscle Shoals, there are managers over the water department, electricity department and gas district. The gas district also involves the city of Madison. Combined, the three managers make about $300,000.

Florence divides those duties among an electricity manager and a water and gas manager. The two managers, combined, make just under $200,000 annually.

Meanwhile, Sheffield and Tuscumbia have one person handling those duties. In Tuscumbia, the utilities manager makes $101,702, while the same position in Sheffield pays $95,692.

"About 14 percent of our operating costs goes into salaries," said Tuscumbia Utilities Manager David Thornton. "Most people who become utilities managers are engineers first and come up through the ranks."

Roquemore made a similar point. He said some positions, such as utilities directors, have particularly high salaries. He said it stands to reason that the more technical the job requirement, the more the employee gets paid.

The TimesDaily survey also revealed that the mayor in Muscle Shoals makes considerably less ($52,000 annually) than most department heads in the city. The police and fire chiefs, city clerk, street and sanitation manager and parks and recreation director all make more than the mayor.

Council members took action recently to change that system. When the new administration takes office Nov. 1, the mayor will make $60,000. Moving forward, the mayor's salary will begin being tied into the cost-of-living index.

Tuscumbia's council also voted earlier this year to increase the mayor's annual salary to $42,000 from $9,600.

Bernie Delinski can be reached at 740-5739 or bernie.delinski@timesdaily.com.

Lisa Singleton-Rickman can be reached at 740-5735 or lisa.rickman@timesdaily.com.