City Employees Receive Pay Raise
A quorum of Monticello City Council members approved a number of measures during their regular meeting Tuesday including the reaffirmation of three percent pay raises for city employees.
Though the raises were approved previously, City Clerk Lathaydra Sands sought clarification on the matter as to whether the raises would be retrograded to July 1 to coincide with the new fiscal year.
Another item of business approved by council members David Wease, Cynthia Miller, Stone Workman and Jenny Murphy was awarding the Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant (LMIG) bid to East Coast Grading as they submitted the lowest bid amount of $41,000 from four bids submitted.
The council also approved a recommendation from City Manager Doug White, who was not present Tuesday, to use LMIG funds to complete needed work from Funderburg Drive to Fred Smith Street.
Also, approved by the council was a measure to pave the sidewalk on Persons Street.
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The compilation of the service delivery strategy (SDS) met with a brief discussion among council as they voted to request some information needed from the county commission in order to proceed. Requests are to be made for the county auditors trial balance report from the past year and every work ticket from road work completed in the city by the county for the past five years.
In relation to the SDS and the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST), Messrs. Workman and Wease provided udpates at the meeting regarding information they learned at the recent Georgia Municipal Association’ (GMA) conference held in Savannah.
The often debated topic of city utility rates was not spared from Tuesday’s discusions as city business owner Jeff Peebles of Peebles Antique Attic asked council to seek some sort of incentive for utility customers as rates appear to be higher here than neighboring areas. A former business owner in Jackson, he said the rate he currently pays is two to three times higher than it was there.
Mayor Bryan Standifer tried to assure the business owner that the council is working on a plan to help with rates and offered Mr. Peebles some time in the future to sit down and discuss his concerns.
Joneen Padgett, an employee of Monticello First United Methodist Church, said that she had some of the same concerns as Mr. Peebles with regards to utility rates. She noted some friends with city businesses who have had trouble maintaining their business with such high utility costs. She cited a friend who worked as a travel agent on the Square but chose to close because the utility bills were triple the cost of her rent.
Bobby Sutton also inquired about utility rates asking if there were two rates used by the city. He was informed that there is indeed a summer and a winter rate. Mr. Sutton also asked who was in charge of the day to day operations in the city to which the mayor responded that the city manger leads the day to day operations and that department heads are available to serve the needs of particular departments.
Looking to establish a policy on the Mine Lake property, council members tabled the item Tuesday but established a policy workshop date of Thursday, August 2 at 6 p.m. to be held at Mine Lake to discuss the property, personnel and purchasing procedures.
A second work session was set for Thursday, August 30 at 6 p.m. to discuss the SDS.
Plans to repair/purchase a new leaf vac truck and revise an erosion control ordinance were tabled until the August meeting.
Mayor Standifer announced that the city had been invited to attend an event at the Electric Cities Government (ECG) in Atlanta on Monday, July 23. Interested council persons should notify the city office by Friday, July 20 if they plan to attend.
Also appoved were minutes from the June 4, June 7 and June 11 meetings of the council as well as payables of $643,191.
During council comments, Mrs. Murphy commented on establishing a work session; Mrs. Miller made a request for hard copies of the future meeting’s packets to be delivered to council members prior to the meeting, inquired about the completion of work on MLK Drive, and asked fellow council members to bring all their ideas on policies to the work session; and Mayor Standifer commented on the festive atmosphere of the market on the square.
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The City Council had a called meeting Monday evening to discuss the refinance of Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG) bonds.
Attorney Joe Reitman presented the resolution to the council for its approval. The mayor had already signed the document, but it hadn’t been approved until Monday night. It basically refinances $9 billion worth of MEAG bonds, saving the MEAG members money and streamlining how they can be refinanced in the future if need be.
After the bond approval, the city went into closed session for pending litigation and personnel for more than an hour, apparently because the attorney was there as the council already had a regular meeting scheduled for Tuesday evening.
