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Regular Council Meeting May 13, 2024 Page 6 A Motion to approve this item was made by Council Member Norment and seconded by Council Member Kessel. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. 22. Discuss hiring and retaining of Paris Police Officers and provide direction to Staff. Mayor Pankaj said Council Member Norment placed this item on the agenda. She said she realized there was great effort to hire and retain police officers. She also said she asked for this to be placed on the agenda to show support for Mr. Path in raising the salaries of the policemen and try to get it in this years' budget. Council Member Norment said this had been an ongoing issue and good strides had been made toward this issue but with the climate, she thought it was important to have good quality police officers on the City's force. She said the City did not have enough officers to respond to some of the minor issues, and had heard this several times from her constituents. Council Member Norment said she wanted to show the City Manager support and she thought the entire Council supported the police and City Staff. She said if ok, she wanted to inquire of Chief Salter how many officers had been hired and lost in the last several years. Chief Salter reported that since January 2022 through that day, the department had gained thirteen officers and lost seventeen officers. He also said two more officers were hired and would be going to the academy. Chief Salter said the department was still down three officers and if they could get the pay rate up, the department's attrition rate would go down. Mr. Path said he really appreciated Council Member Norment bringing this forward and they had some conversations about this. He referenced a memo he sent to Council late last week and stated that he had been working on salaries over the last four years. He also said he would have done more if he could have. Mr. Path said he and Chief Salter had some ideas how to get ahead of the City's competition, and he was excited to bring those to Council in a couple of months. He also said Staff was working on the budget in May, that he would dig into it in June and have it balanced by July. Mr. Path explained that he planned to have the budget back to Council in late July or early August to help them to take that next step in trying to combat this issue. Mr. Path expressed appreciation to Council for their show of support and stated that every year salaries of employees had been costly. Mr. Path said that over the last several years, several million dollars across the board had been added for employees but they were not done yet. He emphasized that the only thing holding it back was the budget constraints but he was trying to stretch as for as he could. Mayor Pankaj said he was excited that Mr. Path was looking into this and he knew it was something that Council wanted to do for first responders, who put their lives on the line each and every day. He said if there was a way they could figure out how to compensate the police officers that would help with this issue, and that he believed the Council all agreed on that. He expressed appreciation to Council Member Norment for bringing this forward. Mayor Pro -Tem Savage said it was his understanding that the Council wanted this to be impactful because the City was competing with the school districts and Lamar County. He also said the pay was comparable but if he were a police officer he would go to Lamar County or the school districts, because the threat for your life goes down and money was about the same. Mayor Pro -Tem Savage said he thought what the Council was saying was they want this to be a