MASON CITY – The Mason City Council met for a work session Tuesday evening and took a look at a preliminary capitol improvement budget for fiscal year 2013-2014. No decisions were final nor voted on at this work session.
The council considered a range of projects for the upcoming year and beyond.
Most immediately, the council looked at new streetlights for the downtown at an overall cost of $1.3 million. The council considered doing a portion of the work this year and doing more work through a later budget. General obligation bonds (debt) would pay for about $1.115 million of that project should it go forward fully.
The council held a lengthy discussion on a compensation study that might cost $45,000. Council member Travis Hickey indicated he was not in favor of the study and wanted to simply compare what Mason City pays its employees to what other similarly-sized cities in Iowa pay their employees. City Administrator Brent Trout said a compensation study would help protect the city from lawsuits from its own employees. The last compensation study was completed for Mason City in 1995.
Also on the list to be considered is a bicycle master plan project at a cost of $300,000, paid from local option sales tax revenues.
The MacNider Museum is seeking up to $90,000 from the city for windows, an entrance sign, stucco repair and handicap railings. The sign would cost $17,000 and it sounded like it would not make the final budget.
There are other projects on the city’s plate that are in need of completion but may not get done in this budget. One such project is the replacement of a water tower on South Federal Avenue. There is money in the budget for the project to get started. Another major project the council is considering is the replacement of an expensive HVAC system (approximately $600,000) at the police station versus planning for a new police station, which would require a vote from the citizens. Yet another project is re-paving of the driveways at the Fire Station. The driveways have to be concrete, Fire Chief Bob Platts said, in order to handle the heavy weight of fire trucks. He said that cheaper asphalt paving could damage hoses and become rutted from the weight of the trucks.
The council seemed to indicate that it wanted to hold water rates steady. The preliminary budget showed the need to raise rates on water and sanitation $15.24 per year ($1.17 per month on water and 10 cents per month on sanitation). The sanitation rate increase will most likely happen.
City Finance Director Kevin Jacobson was given direction to crunch numbers and bring back scenarios for the council to consider at a future work session.
See the work session packet here.
Subscribers, watch some video from the work session:
While talking about city employee wages, hearsay has it that an employee at the waste water treatment plant received a $6000.00 raise after getting two extra people to help do the job. This might be old news, but I don’t remember reading about the raise or the hiring of two people at the plant. If the council is going to compare wages for it’s employees, are they going to compare (all) employees wages or just a chosen few.
“City Administrator Brent Trout said a compensation study would help protect the city from lawsuits from its own employees.” How many lawsuits a year does the city see from its own employees and or anybody else for that matter a year? What is the city doing wrong to be sued by its own employees? Does anyone know what the city has paid out in lawsuits and lawyer fees, lets say since Trout has started?
I can shed some light on this. I have met high-ranking people at City Hall, as far back as 2010, who told me that due to Mayor Eric Bookmeyer’s treatment of them, they now keep detailed notes of each time they interact with him. I was told that when he was elected, Bookmeyer went around City Hall and told people to “get on board” or else. He instantly alienated an untold number of city employees and put them on the defensive trying to protect their jobs. This behavior may not have spawned lawsuits directly, but certainly it could be said that the table was set for a combative work atmosphere at our City Hall thanks to Eric Bookmeyer.
I think they call that “LEAN” — Lick Eric’s Anus Neatly.”
It would be nice if they would earmark the hotel/motel tax for the art museum repairs and sign so no one else will get any bright ideas on how to spend that portion of those funds designated for art projects this year.
Good idea. Why bond out (debt) for this when we had $40K that could have went to the museum instead of sculptures. I guess the handicapped will have to do without a bathroom that works for them so Robin and Eric can look at that naked ass sculpture diving into mud on State Street.
Sounds like Trout is a little scared to compare his salary with other similar size cities. I would hope any study would look at duties also.