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Council introduces revised Youngsville police pay plan to raise starting salary to $45,000
Summary
The council introduced an ordinance to replace the department's pay schedule, increase starting pay for new officers to $45,000 and reorganize rank differentials to align with state statute; the measure was introduced and will return for adoption.
The Youngsville City Council introduced an ordinance to repeal the current police pay schedule and adopt a revised pay plan that raises starting pay for new police officers to $45,000.
Dr. Janelle Doucet of Vermilion Analytics, retained to revise the plan, told the council the package increases starting pay to improve recruitment and retention while simplifying the department’s pay matrix. Doucet said the proposed changes reduce rank differentials that had been large under the old seniority-based system and that recommended differentials align with guidance in the Louisiana Revised Statutes cited during the presentation.
Under the proposed plan, Doucet said the average percent increase would be about 11.3% for officers with typical incumbency and 16.1% for sergeants. She said the plan holds four incumbent employees at their current pay (0% increase) to allow the pay schedule to “catch up” without penalizing those individuals; two of those incumbents were previously granted years-of-creditable-service for work at other agencies, a practice the city is proposing to stop going forward.
Council members asked for clarification about how prior service with Youngsville Police Department would be treated for creditable service. Officer Burgess asked whether earlier service before the city’s civil-service implementation would count; staff said the ordinance language refers to original hire date and that the introduction stage allows time to verify hire-date records before final adoption.
The ordinance was introduced on a motion by Mr. Bolgiano and seconded by Ms. Barres; a roll-call vote on introduction was unanimous with council members voting yes. The item is scheduled to return for adoption at a subsequent meeting after staff verifies hire-date and creditable-service records.
Why it matters: raising the starting salary and restructuring rank differentials is intended to improve recruitment and retention for the Youngsville Police Department and to simplify long-term pay administration. The council and staff emphasized that some technical clarifications remain—particularly how prior Youngsville service and noncontinuous employment will be credited—and will be addressed before final adoption.
