Upcoming fiscal year could see pay increases for Asheboro employees/police

Asheboro officials are in the midst of attracting and retaining more city workers in the upcoming fiscal year.

Commissioners and staff received a brief overview of the town's unemployment rate and job outlook during their budget talks on Friday.

"The pandemic drove people into the retirement community earlier than expected," said City Manager John Ogburn who added this was one of a number of economic factors the city has to consider.

While North Carolina and Randolph County have respective unemployment rates of 3.5% and 3.3%, Asheboro's unemployment rate is 3.7%. This is in spite of retirements in 2020 and 2021.

"The last time unemployment was this low in the country was 1969," Ogburn said.

Ogburn and staff remarked on the need for skilled workers, something that, in recent years, has grown to a statewide issue. Ogburn said there are positions in the city that need to be filled.

"Local governments across our region, the Piedmont and Triad, are proposing historically unprecedented salary increases to...be competitive and we're no different," Ogburn said.

Ogburn describes it as a domino effect.

"Alamance County raises their wages," Ogburn said. "People leave to work for Alamance County. What does Guilford County do, raise their wages? What do High Point and Greensboro do?"

Ogburn said the city should spend the upcoming fiscal year enacting employee retention policies that other towns have either already enacted or are considering. To do this Obgurn suggests two key changes, a cost of living adjustment, or COLA for police and an additional pay-plan adjustment for all city employees.

"People are leaving for higher pay," Ogburn said before directly comparing Asheboro to Greensboro, Highpoint, and other nearby cities.

A cost of living adjustment is an increase in pay to accommodate for market changes in essentials. Asheboro's current budget accounts for a 6% COLA increase for police officers.

The budget letter goes into more detail about the city's trouble with attracting officers.

"Currently, the City of Asheboro Police Department can only fill vacancies due to retirement by recruitment through the Police Officer Trainee Program," reads the budget letter.

The Police Officer Trainee Program is a program that attracts prospective officers to Asheboro's Police Department by providing them with professional training.

It takes over a year to train an inexperienced officer, according to information provided by the budget letter. This training gap could present a problem if the city needs to quickly fill a position.

"We do not have the time and cannot rely on the trainee program to effectively fill our department," reads the budget letter.

Officials hope this change will attract more officers to the city's aging police force.

"In 12-18 months we expect 13-15 retirements in the police department," Ogburn said.

Follow Dean-Paul Stephens on Twitter @DeanPEStephens. If you have tips, send an email to dstephens@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Courier-Tribune: Asheboro employees could see their pay increase in new fiscal year