The Reporter newspaper, Camdenton Missouri

The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

Published August 12, 2015

City employees to get pay raises

By Jeff Thompson
CAMDENTON - City employees can look forward to a pay increase thanks to action taken by the Board of Aldermen last week.

Three resolutions dealing with pay increases, an unpaid leave policy and a city financial management policy were all approved by the board, but not all of the resolutions were passed unanimously.

Resolution 15-18 called for a revision of the employee pay plan - calling for an across-the-board employee pay raise - was sent to the aldermen from the city’s Pay & Compensation Committee.

City Administrator Jeff Hancock explained the pay raise amount and how it will affect hourly and salaried employees.

“Based on sales tax revenues to date the committee voted to recommend that all hourly employees receive a $0.40 per hour pay raise and all salaried employees receive the annual equivalent of $832,” Hancock said in a report to the board.

The board unanimously approved the pay hike.

However, a resolution calling for a change in the city’s leave-without-pay policy met with some opposition.

The matter became an issue when a city employee was facing needed surgery while being out for two weeks but did not have any sick leave, although the employee had two weeks of vacation time, the city administrator stated.

According to Hancock, the employee asked to use one week of vacation time (and retain one week for use later in the year) while going the second week without pay.

“The city currently does not have a policy to provide for this request and in speaking to other department directors I learned that they had also been approached about leave without pay,” Hancock said in a report to the board, adding that the proposed policy was modeled after one found on the Missouri Municipal League website.

The new request form states “leave without pay may only be requested in instances where an individual will be out from work for two to four weeks due to surgery for themselves or a close family member.”

In addition, “physician’s note stating length of time employee is expected to be away from work must accompany this request”.

Approval must be granted by the department director, city administrator and mayor and only one week of vacation may be reserved for future use.

Any time away from work greater than four weeks would fall under the federal Family Medical Leave Act.

The board approved the measure by a vote of 4-2.

The other resolution - approving a city financial management policy - was also approved by the board but Alderman Sandy Osborn voted against the measure.

According to Hancock, the board was presented with a draft financial management policy for review on May 19.

“At the Budget Retreat we communicated to you the importance of setting fund balance guidelines and how that concept could be included within an adopted citywide financial management policy,” Hancock said.

In other business at the August 4 board meeting:

• The board approved a request from City Administrator Jeff Hancock to place the city’s solid waste contract out for bids.

“The last time the city sought a request for proposals/bids for the city’s solid waste collection and disposal service was in 2007,” Hancock said in a report to the board. “Since that time we have not only added voluntary recycling but the present firm had the option to increase annually any cost for service with the cost of living index.”

The new contract will include continuation of voluntary recycling.

Hancock added that bids are due Sept. 3 and hopes to have a contract to present to the board at its Sept. 15 meeting with a start date of Oct. 1.

• The aldermen approved a series of three ordinances dealing with an agreement between Sakelaris Ford, Mid-County Fire Protection District and the city concerning a portion of Walnut Street for easements, stop signs and sewer lines.
• An ordinance authorizing Mayor John McNabb and City Clerk Renee Kingston to enter into an agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission for a State Block Grant to help pay for the design of a runway extension at Camdenton Memorial Airport was approved by the board
• In addition, a request from Public Works Director Bill Jeffries to purchase a new handheld PC electronic meter reader was also approved by the board.

The current one - FC200 ITRON - is no longer supported by the company and will not support new software, Jeffries explained in a report to the board.

The cost will be approximately $5,565; the department currently has only $1,200 in its new equipment budget line item.