GREENE: Carrollton Council approves pay raises to themselves

By Editor | August 16, 2023 |

By Carmen Ensinger

The Carrollton City Council voted to give salary adjustments to its elected officials. This includes the Mayor, City Clerk and Alderpersons.
The last time a salary adjustment was granted to city officials in Carrollton was 26 years ago. Currently, council members receive $75 per month and $25 per meeting; the City Clerk receives $250 per month and $25 per meeting and the Mayor receives $400 per month and $25 per meeting.
After the pay raise, the Alderpersons will receive $200 per month, the City Clerk will receive $500 per month and the Mayor $800 per month. All will receive $30 per meeting, up from the $25.
“The Personnel Committee has had time to talk and meet about this issue and we haven’t had anything to deter us from making this recommendation,” Personnel Committee Chairman Larry Gillingham said. “I move we proceed with this and see if we can’t make it happen.”
Alderwoman Bernie Faul seconded the motion and all voted “Yes” with the exception of Alderman Gary Witt who abstained. Witt said he abstained because, while he agrees with the increase, what he doesn’t agree with is the way it is done.
Witt is referring to the fact that even though the raise is being voted in now that the current aldermen will not receive the benefit of the raise. Only newly elected or aldermen who are re-elected for another term will benefit from the pay raise. In Witt’s case, he will have to serve another three years without benefit of the raise.
Three aldermen’s terms will expire in 2025 and the other three in 2027. Those elected to fill those seats will receive the pay increase. The Mayor and City Clerk will see their pay increase upon the next election.
The council also approved a Performance Evaluation Form to be used for the three non-union department heads, which includes the police chief, department of public works director and treasurer.
“This is a simple form and is an attempt for us to provide some kind of objective for a performance review that is subjective,” Alderman Larry Gillingham said. “So when it comes to giving salary increases next year, then we would have measurable comments and statistics on this performance review of the various department heads to go by.”
In other words, department heads will no longer be guaranteed the same pay raise as union employees – their pay raise will be granted or rejected based on their performance evaluation.
Union employees are guaranteed a certain percentage increase per year in their union contract. This year it was a 3.5 percent increase. Typically, the council gives the non-union employees the same increase. This Performance Evaluation Form will give the council the ability to not only rate the performance of the department heads, but also compensate them accordingly.
As for who will do the evaluations, the Mayor will be evaluated by council and because the Mayor appoints the department heads, he will be responsible for doing the evaluation on those employees.
The Performance Evaluation Form will rate the department heads on six different areas: Attendance, dependability, work quality, initiative, decision making and communication.
The council also approved the purchase of a radio for the police chief’s office and the police officers room at the request of Police Chief Jimmy Buchanan.
“Right now, in both offices we are running off of portable radios and if they go dead we don’t hear traffic from other places,” Buchanan said. “A lot of times, if they have been on a long time, we might go out on a call and they will go dead on us and you don’t want that to happen.”
Buchanan said the reason they don’t currently have radios is that when they switched from analog to digital radio systems, the city never upgraded the radios for those two areas.
They will take the radio out of the Silver Explorer and use it in one of the rooms and get a new radio from Global as well as an antenna and the price quoted was $2,246.01.
Public Works Director Steve Rosentreter said that Brotke Well and Pump inspected the city wells a month ago and recommended cleaning wells number one and two, which are the city’s two oldest wells.
“They said one of them is 45 percent down and the other one is 15 percent down,” Rosentreter said. “They said the third well is good right now but it might need cleaning next year.”
Rosentreter said there is also a shaft on well number two that is worn that is allowing water to spray out. He got a bid to get that replaced while they are doing the cleaning. The cost for the shaft is $360 while the labor to replace it is $1,135. Cost for cleaning the wells is $20,864, each, for a grand total of $43,224.
Rosentreter said he checked into the Water Maintenance Fund and they have approximately $106,700 in that fund, minus the $7,000 for the pump that they just had rebuilt, which leaves about $99,000 in the fund. So, they still have more than enough in the fund to cover the cleaning. The council approved the cleaning.
Rosentreter also asked permission to seek bids on a new truck for the public works department.
“I’m just looking ahead,” he said. “I would like to go out and get some bids on a new truck and equipment so we can apply for a grant from the USDA. You have to have a figure before you apply for the grant. All I’m asking for is an okay to seek the bids.”
The council granted permission for him to seek the bids.
City Treasurer Diane Hendricks announced that the city had received a $99,000 USDA Rural Business Development Grant for the Square Project.
Alderwoman Bernie Faul announced that the unveiling of the Veteran’s Memorial Walkway would be on Sept. 16 at 10 a.m. with a meal to follow at the Eldred American Legion. All are welcome to attend both events.