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Jonesboro City Council to decide raises at next meeting

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The Jonesboro City Council is expected to decide at the next meeting on whether or not to give elected officials a six percent raise.  More debate on the issue ensued during the meeting last night, with most aldermen against giving themselves, Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin, City Attorney Carol Duncan, and City Clerk Donna Jackson a pay increase.  Alderman Joe Hafner says after reviewing a draft of next year’s budget, he doesn’t think raises are appropriate.

His proposal was to table the ordinance indefinitely, which sparked debate.  Alderman Chris Moore stated the proposal should not be held indefinitely and that it deserved an “up or down vote”, meaning voting for the proposal or against it and leaving it there.  Another proposal was for citizens to vote on a similar measure.  That was rejected by Alderman Mitch Johnson, who says that all budget matters are too voted on by the council.

Alderman Gene Vance says for the bulk of the work that Perrin, Duncan, and Jackson do, they should be well compensated.

Alderman David McClain once again emphasized that there are more pressing matters the city faces right now instead of pay raises. 

The measure will be brought up at the next meeting. Also, the City Council agreed to a memorandum of understanding about the new Jonesboro Shooting Sports Complex.  The agreed to enter into an agreement with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission about how the new shooting sports complex will be run and how it will be funded.  The council held at one reading an ordinance that would take around one-point-two million dollars out of reserves to buy land off of Moore Road for the complex to be located.  That will be addressed next meeting.  

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.