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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer wants to use more than half of a $20 million windfall on potential pay increases for Metro Government staff. 

The midyear spending move, which the full Metro Council could vote to approve at its mid-December meeting, comes partly in response to a wave of city employees leaving for better-paying private sector jobs.

In particular, Louisville has struggled with staffing shortages and resignations among public safety staff in the city’s police department and jail.

Fischer’s office said in a Monday news release that $12.8 million from the midyear adjustment could go to the Office of Management and Budget for “potential salary and wage adjustments — both union and non-union — necessary to meet marketplace demands.”

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The $20 million adjustment reflects savings among government agency operations that were limited earlier in the pandemic as well as unanticipated revenue growth in fiscal year 2021, according to Monica Harmon, the city’s chief financial officer.

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The city’s human resources director, Ernestine Booth, said the Metro Government is seeing a 7% turnover rate just five months into the fiscal year.

Many of the employees leaving, both those in unions and not in unions, say they are drawn to the private sector because of better pay, Booth said. 

“With limited funding over the past few years, many of our union contracts included wage increases of zero to 2%, and our non-union grid has not been adjusted since 2016,” Booth said in a news release.

Booth also noted COVID-19 has created what industry officials describe as the “Great Resignation” or a “resignation tsunami,” with employees expecting greater flexibility — such as remote work — along with higher wages and more paid time off.

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The city’s attrition rate has gained attention particularly for its impact on the Louisville Metro Police Department and Metro Corrections. 

LMPD leaders have said since last year their department was short several hundred officers.

As of November, according to LMPD data, the department had 1,039 sworn members of all ranks, but Chief Erika Shields has said the department should have about 1,300 to be fully staffed. 

Employees in the city’s jail, meanwhile, have said they are at a “breaking point” because of low staffing, long hours and stressful conditions, with members of the union for Metro Corrections voting “no confidence” in the jail’s director in September.

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Fischer has also proposed an additional $5.7 million for upgrading the city’s fleet, primarily to replace outdated sanitation equipment and dump trucks. 

The remaining $5 million would be matching funds for a $50 million Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant that the city is seeking with eight partners.  

The federal grant program is giving away $1 billion to help communities nationwide in “accelerating their economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and building economies resilient to future economic shocks,” Fischer’s office said.

Metro Council Budget Chair Bill Hollander, who represents the Ninth District, said in the release he and his council colleagues “have been discussing these issues for months.”

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“A better-than-expected revenue picture and federal funds have put us in a position to address some of the salary issues which are hindering our ability to recruit and retain employees needed to serve the public,” Hollander said.

The next budget committee hearing is Dec. 9 at 5 p.m., while the final Metro Council meeting of the year is Dec. 16 at 6 p.m. Those who cannot attend meetings in person can also view proceedings live via Metro TV, the council clerk’s archived media page or the Metro Council’s Facebook page.

Reach Billy Kobin at [email protected].