How to send a public signal regarding the economy and city spending had the Brainerd City Council discussing a wage freeze Monday as new council members took office.
The discussion began with a reappointment of three city officials. Council member Mary Koep proposed amending the motion to re-appoint Tom Fitzpatrick as city attorney, Tim Caughey as building official and Jeff Hulsether as city engineer for two-year terms and freeze their wages for 2009.
With the first meeting of the year, Koep said this was a chance to send a signal regarding how the council will conduct business. Freezing salaries is a way to signal the public that the council is serious about what it has to do, Koep said.
When the reappointments first came up individually, council member Kelly Bevans couldn't agree more with the sentiment but was concerned about singling out some department heads.
Bevans said he believes the council will be to the point of wage freezes anyway. Freezing wages to save a proposed $125,000 was a staff suggestion to respond to a $317,224 cut in local government aid for 2008. Staff members met Dec. 22 to consider ways to respond to the cuts for 2008 and the ones expected in 2009.
Council member Ann Nelson Fisher said she shared Bevans' concerns. Koep said she was convinced by those arguments and withdrew the amendment. The council reappointed Hulsether, Caughey and Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick's reappointment came with a requirement for a quarterly report on projects and approximate hours spent. Koep first suggested monthly reports but reduced the frequency as council member Bonnie Cumberland suggested that may be too burdensome.
As part of the amendment, Koep also proposed revisiting the appointment in August when the council looks at the budget for 2011 to see if the city should seek requests for proposals for the city attorney service for 2012.
The council referred greater discussion of the budget cuts for the council retreat to 6:30 p.m. Feb. 23 in city hall.
RENEE RICHARDSON may be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.
To Subscribe to the Brainerd Dispatch, Click Here.
Note: Comments are not edited and don't represent the views of The Brainerd Dispatch. Please read our posting rules in the terms of service policy. To report a post that may be inappropriate, click the triangle alert icon.
Top Commented Articles
