An examination of the City of Vidalia’s payroll list shows that even though it is approximately a quarter a size of neighboring Natchez, it employs a workforce equivalent to approximately 75 percent of Natchez’s.

Part of the apparently disparate workforce comparison, however, can be explained in how the two cities differ in the way they offer city services.

Including elected officials, the City of Vidalia had 202 full- and part-time hourly and salaried employees on its payroll during the 2014 calendar year.

That comes to approximately one city employee for every 21 of Vidalia’s approximately 4,300 residents.

The neighboring City of Natchez, meanwhile, had approximately 260 employees on its payroll during that same time. Natchez has a population of approximately 15,800, meaning it has one employee for every 60 residents.

The City of Vidalia has an employee with an administrative title — manager, executive, coordinator or chief — for every 330 of the city’s approximately 4,300 residents.

Of those 13 positions, 11 make in excess of $50,000 a year.

Only two of those positions are elected.

The city also had 11 contract employees, including a lobbyist who makes $40,642 annually, a port consultant paid $50,002 and a “food and beverage consultant” — the Vidalia Conference and Convention Center’s caterer — who was paid $39,420 for a one-year period.

For the 2016 fiscal year, $9,047,850 was budgeted for personal services, which included salaries and wages, health insurance, worker’s compensation and employee benefits.

That’s approximately $2,104.14 in wages and benefits that will be spent this year for every man, woman and child in the city limits each year.

On its face Vidalia has a proportionally larger workforce than Natchez, but some factors — such as the existence of a city utility department — need to be considered.

Vidalia operates electricity, water, gas and sewer utilities for residents.

Natchez does not provide utilities to its residents. While the city aldermen appoint members to the Natchez Water Works board, the organization operates independently and self-funds. Entergy provides electrical service.

The Vidalia Street and Sanitation Department also handles trash pickup, a service the City of Natchez contracts out to a private provider, WastePro.

Vidalia Alderman and Mayor Pro Tem Vernon Stevens said the utility and street departments maintaining those services would account for approximately 30 employees the City of Natchez would not have to maintain on its payroll.

Likewise, while the City of Vidlia operates its riverfront convention center, Natchez has a contract with New Orleans Hotel Consultants for the operation of the Natchez Convention Center.

The City of Natchez has departments the City of Vidalia does not, however, including the Traffic and Planning departments.

Alderwoman Mo Saunders said she believes it is important for a city to be self-sufficient, and part of that means operating its own services.

“The city should be able to operate on its on,” she said. “You never know what is going to happen, and when you buy services like your garbage from other places, it continuously goes up. When you buy from others you have to take that price, but when you buy from yourself you can find ways to cut corners and save on costs, and I am very proud of Vidalia for the fact they have always done this, ever since I was a little girl.”

Stevens said maintaining its own departments has allowed Vidalia to offer better services than a private company might.

“Vidalia has owned its own utility system for years, and I think we can far better maintain our own system,” he said. “If your lights went out, (a private company) would come and fix it, but they wouldn’t have a team here. But with our department, if your lights go out, they aren’t out very long. (The utility department) does what they need to do to get the power back on, and very rarely in Vidalia do you have a power outage.”

Keeping city garbage pickup is also important not only to the government but to residents, Stevens said.

“If we have talked in the past about contracting with somebody, there would be a major uproar,” he said. “People like the backdoor pickup service that we provide, that wherever you leave your can, unless you have a dog in your yard, they are going to come and get it. You wouldn’t have that with a contractor.”

Alderman Jon Betts said maintaining those services is a good thing for the city to do, though he said leaders should always be watching to make sure jobs weren’t being duplicated.

“You have to be careful when you are doing a lot of stuff for yourself, but I like the fact we run our own utilities,” he said. “(If you privatize), you are going to lose some of the services that our people have grow accustomed to have, such as backdoor service, limb pickups, you would lose some of that. I think that was a big thing of keeping what we do why we do, because people seem to like that.”

Top earners

For the time period examined, 16 people on the city payroll made greater than $50,000 a year. Those taking home top pay are in the most part in supervisory roles, though four are department-level workers.

In one instance, however, a security officer took home more than the director of the building he guards.

The top earner in the city was Mayor Hyram Copeland, who as chief executive officer of the city is paid $79,671 annually.

The No. 2 top paid position is a non-elected one, Superintendent of Utilities Mark Morace, who was paid $73,036 annually. As superintendent of utilities, Morace oversees the operations of the city’s water, sewer and electrical operations.

The No. 3 best paid position went to Town Clerk Vicki Byrnes, who took home $70,092 that year.

The No. 4 salary in the city also went to an elected official, Police Chief Arthur Lewis, who was paid $69,756 annually.

Other top earners include:

-City Accountant Ashley Anderson, $66,101.

-Lineman, $65,328. Linemen working with electrical utilities are compensated for the high-skill nature of their job and the danger associated with power lines.

-Office Manager, Utility Clerk and Assistant Town Clerk, $64,288.

-Fire Chief Johnny Evans, $63,290.

-Vidalia Conference and Convention Center Security, $59,258.

-Captain/EMT, $57,463.

-Director of Economic Development, $56,595.

-Lineman, $55,201.

-Shop mechanic supervisor, $53,104.

-Vidalia Conference and Convention Center Director H.L. Irvin, $52,331.

-Recreation Department Director Johnny Hoffpauir, $52,100.

-Assistant Police Chief Bruce Wiley, $50,972.

-Port consultant, $50,002.

The city’s aldermen are paid $8,594 annually for their work.

The city provided the payroll list with titles and the amount given to each employee in annual pay, but did not identify each individual.

Copeland did not return a phone message seeking comment last week.