A citizen added some sizzle to an otherwise mundane second reading of the city’s budget for the coming year, saying the board of mayor and aldermen should raise taxes, pay police more, and that at least one alderman at the table needs to dress nicer.

“Your budget is absolutely terrible when it comes to your police officers,” stated Gary Durham who took his opportunity to address the board for three minutes as a concerned citizen prior to their vote on the budget. “You’re paying $15 an hour. That is under poverty level.”

He went on to point out that the average pay for police in a town the size of Smithville is about $39,000 and that the average officer in Tennessee makes $44,000.

“There are 135 police officers killed every year,” Durham noted as he stood at the meeting table, refusing to sit down. “Does anybody here want to put on a uniform and go on the street for $15? I don’t think so.”

Alderman Shawn Jacobs countered that after benefits, and given their new pay scale, which starts all officers at $15.21 and gives them tier raises, an officer will, in reality, make in the neighborhood of $45,000 per year working for the city of Smithville. He pointed out the city pays more than the county does for its officers.

“I live in the city, I don’t care what the county does,” Durham countered, then turning his ire toward Alderman Danny Washer who was sitting at the end of the table, questioning his choice of attire in attending a city meeting wearing shorts and a ball cap.

“My father would have knocked my head off if I sat down at the table dressed like that,” Durham said, his criticism getting a rise out of Washer who said he “took offense” to being singled out.

Alderman Gayla Hendrix told Durham that a lot of issues with the tight budget this year is because the city is having to pay off big ticket items.
I wish we could pay every city employee a lot more money than we are, but one of the reasons we are not spending as much this year is because we have made some very major capital outlay expenses in the last few years with our sanitation truck, fire truck, and other improvements, and then we lost a lot of our water customers from the DeKalb Utility District. We are hoping after this year we won’t have any major outlays for a little bit and we can start doing some more for our employees and others. I would like to see our police department make more and to have more paid firefighters,” she said.

The budget passed unanimously, leaving taxes unchanged and providing for a one percent raise for city employees.