Valdese faces budget pressure as pay gaps and public safety needs grow

When Valdese residents dial 911, the speed and skill of the police and firefighters who arrive at their door depend entirely on a municipal foundation that is currently showing deep cracks.

For years, the town has grappled with an escalating retention crisis within its public safety and municipal departments, watching highly trained personnel leave for neighboring communities offering significantly higher pay and better facilities.

Now, the town council faces pivotal financial choices that will dictate the future of its community services.

Bringing compensation levels of all Valdese departments up to local market competitiveness will be expensive, the council learned at its regular monthly meeting on Monday evening at town hall.

Fold the estimated $600,000 cost of those wage adjustments into the hefty financial price of needed infrastructure improvements and it’s clear the town faces powerful budgetary challenges.

“We need additional revenue,” said Valdese Mayor Keith Huffman after Monday’s meeting. “How we accomplish that is something I feel we will have to address during this budget year.”

Valdese leadership is expected to discuss and refine these and other municipal financial priorities during its budget workshop on Tuesday, April 14.

During Monday’s council meeting, two seemingly separate agenda items — a State of the Department address by Fire Chief Truman Walton and a presentation on a comprehensive pay study by human resources consultant David Hill — converged to highlight this exact crisis.

The two lengthy presentations totaled nearly two hours. They fit together more neatly than they may first appear. One, a market pay study, states that Valdese is paying employees less than nearby governments. The other, a fire department review, says one of the town’s most labor-intensive services is already stretched by rising calls, thin staffing, and an outdated facility.

Together, they indicate that pay, staffing, and emergency services capabilities are not separate debates. They are parts of the same question about what level of public service residents can expect.

Enacting these measures would solidify Valdese as a competitive employer in Burke County, ensuring that the firefighters, police officers, and public works employees who know the town’s streets and residents remain in their posts.

Failure to modernize compensation and facilities means Valdese risks becoming a permanent training ground for other municipalities, the council heard during the presentations.

The compensation presentation was delivered by David Hill, a management analyst with the Piedmont Triad Regional Council. Hill was hired to conduct a thorough analysis of the town’s pay scale, benefits packages, and personnel policies after earlier, piecemeal efforts failed to stop the bleeding. It represents the culmination of a six-month study.

(Hill is no stranger to Valdese’s compensation schedules. He conducted a similar study for Valdese about five years ago, after which wage adjustments were implemented. His recommendations were partially implemented during the adoption of the 2019 budget. Realizing that the town was still losing staff, in June 2023 the council approved an across-the-board 10% increase to the existing pay plan.)

Hill’s current study compared pay scales of Valdese with nearby cities and counties, including Morganton, Hickory, Lenoir, Burke County, and Catawba County. It revealed that Valdese’s pay grade ranges are 14.1% below the market average and employee salaries overall are 10.3% below market.

The average pay for a Valdese police officer is $47,120, Hill said. Drexel’s average is $50,659; Morganton, $53,214; Granite Falls, $49,729.

For Valdese fire engineers, the average pay is $43,823, Hill said. Morganton’s average is $53,237; Granite Falls, $43,784. Drexel’s fire department is all volunteer with the exception of the chief, who is a town employee.

If the town continues to lag nearby governments on pay, it will be harder to keep experienced employees in public safety and other departments, town officials said.

Hill’s implementation model would move employees toward the midpoint of their market-based pay range by their seventh year of service or time in position. The estimated cost of implementation across all departments is $687,627, including payroll-related expenses.

Town Manager Todd Herms told council after the presentations that his team has “been working hard on it (and) it will be presented fully funded at the rates recommended” for the fiscal year 2026-27 budget.

THE STATE OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT

Paired directly with the administrative reality of the pay study is the operational reality of the Valdese Fire Department.

Fire Chief Walton’s 90-minute State of the Department report to the council gave the council an unfiltered look at current operations, recent accomplishments, and the department’s pressing priorities moving forward.

The fire department is navigating severe facility limitations, Walton said. His presentation listed one shower, a training room that is too small, tight apparatus bays, no bay ventilation system, too few gear lockers, offices in an exterior trailer, plumbing and electrical problems, and a computer server room located in a condemned part of the building.

In recent months, Walton has worked closely with the town manager and Police Chief Marc Sharpe to design a combined public safety building out of sheer necessity rather than luxury.

Proposed designs for a new joint facility have already been shrunk to the smallest legal footprint in an effort to accommodate the town’s tight budget constraints, Herms has said.

THE BLUEPRINT FOR THE FUTURE

Valdese’s internal infrastructure requires urgent attention, Herms and Huffman said. The integration of the pay study and the fire department’s operational review marks the beginning of a difficult financial conversation for the town, Huffman said.

These discussions will transition from presentations into actionable policy during the Annual Town Council Budget Retreat at Valdese Town Hall on April 14, beginning at 9 a.m. There, the council will decide whether to fully fund Hill’s pay study recommendations and aggressively pursue Walton’s operational needs as part of the fiscal year 2026-27 budget, Huffman said.

The final 2026-27 budget is slated for presentation on May 11.