The Kosciusko Board of Aldermen recently approved new pay scales for city police and volunteer firemen.
Under the police department’s former pay scale, a new uncertified police officer, prior to and while training at the police academy, earned a $14.78 hourly wage. A police academy graduate or officer with less than three years of experience earned $16.16 per hour. A police academy graduate one year after certification or a certified officer with three or more years’ experience earned $16.74 per hour. Senior patrolmen — officers who started with KPD and reached three years of experience, certified officers with three or more years of experience and completed one year with KPD, and certified officers with 10 or more years of experience were set at $17.63 hourly. Lieutenants’ hourly pay was $19.97, captains’ $21.32, and investigators ranging from $21.67-$24.14.
With the newly approved pay scale, requested for by Kosciusko Police Chief Chris Wray, pay for new uncertified officers’ remains at $14.78. The second rate of $16.16 for officers with less than three years of experience was eliminated. Officers with less than three years of experience or part-time officers will earn $16.74 hourly. Certified officers with three or more years of experience will make $17.63 hourly without the requirement of working with KPD for a full year. Lieutenant and captains’ pay remains the same. Investigators’ pay is now set at $22.39 and administrative assistant at $22.09.
In simpler terms, Chief Wray said the department is accepting lateral transfers.
“It really just simplifies it to where you either have less than three years of experience or more than three years of experience,” said Wray. “If you have more, we will accept you as a lateral transfer and go ahead and pay you at the rate of P2 ($17.63). That will make it easier to recruit officers with experience and simplify the rank structure.”
Wray said law enforcement is getting more competitive in searching for quality officers, and the new pay scale will be a beneficial tool to bring more officers to Kosciusko.
“Law enforcement in general is just getting more competitive. And you just don't have the same amount of people applying for police positions that you used to years ago. And so, everybody's just getting more competitive in trying to retain good officers. So, this is just one more step in the right direction.”
Mayor Tim Kyle agreed that the new pay scale clears up confusion from the former, allowing officers with three or more years of experience to reach the next threshold without having to be with KPD for a year.
“This is the thing that kind of always confused people. So, really, an officer that might have more than three years’ experience couldn't get this pay because he hadn’t been with the KPD for a year (under the former pay scale),” said Kyle. “So, we just eliminated a lot of that verbiage. So, now it says if you’re a certified officer with less than three years or a part-time officer, this is the pay you get. If you’ve got more than three years, this is the pay you get. It clarifies it and makes it a lot easier.”
Kyle said the new, simplified pay scale will be better for recruiting more officers.
“If you're trying to get a guy that's already got three years’ experience, why would he want to come here for this money when he was probably already making close to this where he was at? And now he can't get this pay because he's got to be here a year,” said Kyle. “So, it just it makes it a little better for recruiting people and makes it so much easier to understand. Sometimes less is more, and I believe this is the case.”
The Kosciusko Fire Department also made changes to its volunteer firemen pay scale to increase volunteer recruitment and retention along with improving the city’s fire rating. Currently, volunteer firemen earn $20 for every call. Under the newly approved pay scale, volunteer firemen will make $50 for working fires/all-calls, $35 for car fires, grass fires, or motor vehicle accidents, and a $25 extended incident option that will be at the discretion of Fire Chief Duane Burdine.
In an effort to lower the city’s fire rating from a class six to a class five, Burdine said the Mississippi State Ratings Bureau informed the department that changes needed to be made regarding the city water system. Burdine added that a lower fire rating will not only benefit the fire department, but rather the whole city.
“The lower our classification rating, the lower the insurance is for everybody in the city. Particularly, a drop from six to five is good for industry and commerce in the city. It can be an economic driver in this respect…let’s say an industry was trying to decide between putting an industry in Carthage or Kosciusko. Well, every city is going to offer tax abatements, but when they look at the insurance rates for their business, if (another city) is a seven and we are a five, that is a large chunk of money they can saved just by having it in our area.”
The department recently updated its fire codes, and Kosciusko Water and Light will provide a map of all hydrant valves in the city for the department to provide to the bureau. Another requirement is having 12 firemen available to report back to the station for all-call incidents. Burdine said the department has been averaging 10 at every fire.
“If a fire happens, and (dispatch) does what we call an all-call — for a house fire, automatic alarm, or a gas leak or something like that — everybody comes back. So, if myself or any one of these guys decides to say this Friday, I’m going to take my wife out to Jackson go out to eat, we have to call the station first and tell them that we're going to be out of out of service for so many hours because we keep a running total at the station,” said Burdine. “So, even though we have nine guys that are off duty at any given time, because there's three on duty at night and on weekends, you're never going to get the full nine back because everybody's got stuff going on. Normally, a good response for us is between seven to nine. So, we’ve got to come up with more volunteers.”
Burdine said the department has 15 slots available for volunteers, but only five are currently filled. He said when he started in 1992, the department routinely kept 15 volunteers and a long list of applicants, but that is no longer the case.
“We'd have a stack of applications, and when somebody got off, somebody else would get right on,” he said. “But in modern day, you just don't get volunteers anymore. It's very hard to get volunteers. With gas being so high, you’re just not going to get somebody to come out at two o'clock in the morning, when it's 10 degrees outside and have to work three or four hours for 20 bucks. You're just not going to do it. Nobody wants to do that kind of stuff anymore.”
Burdine said he hopes to receive interest from some young applicants who would want to make some money while servicing the community.
“My hope is to try to get some younger people, college-age, interested in this. They can make $500-$600 a month if they come to the calls,” said Burdine. “It’s also a recruitment tool. Some of those young people that get in discover, ‘I really like this. I want to be a firefighter.’ And our (volunteer sector) is where we prefer to pull our (full-time) firemen. We already know those people, so we know how they are and have a pretty good idea if they are going to make it.”
Back pay for full-time calls will also change from two hours to a three-hour base. Full-time only responds back to full alarms (automatic alarms, structure fires, gas leaks, heavy rescue calls, and any call an incident commander feels needs a full response.)
In fiscal year 2021, pay for volunteer and full-time firemen totaled $646,081. The forecasted projection for fiscal year 2022 will increase to $775,494.50.
“Even though we are paying $50 a call, this is the most gross cost-efficient way to do it,” said Burdine. “They are still going to save a lot of money doing it this way.”
