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 With the beginning of a new year, the Mayor will typically review
the appointments to the city commissions and designate new or
returning appointees. There is also a review of the current city
department heads, and the mayor is expected to present his
recommendations to re-appoint or remove those persons. Tuesday
evening Acting Mayor Scott Cooper brought these items and others
before the council seeking to have them put on the agenda for next
week.
Appointment of a new Mayor Pro Tempore
Cooper said that next Monday night he will present his choice for a
new Mayor Pro Tempore to the council. As is customary he will offer
up the name of a council member seeking the “advice and consent” of
the council for his selection.
Cooper noted he wanted to make this a priority because when former
Mayor Keith Snyder resigned there was no Mayor Pro Tem in place.
While the situation did not call for the Mayor Pro Tem to serve as
mayor for the long term, it would have answered an immediate need
until the council could decide how to move forward.
 The Mayor Pro Tem is appointed annually, and the last appointment
had been made in May of 2014. At that time, Alderwoman Melody
Anderson was selected. However, when Anderson resigned from the
council, no replacement was appointed. Amendment to ordinance regarding the selection of a mayor
City Administrator Clay Johnson took the lead on this discussion
recommending a change to the city ordinance that would reflect
compliance with state rules.
When Snyder resigned, a review of the current city ordinance
regarding replacing a mayor was outdated and did not comply with
state law. Johnson explained that in this case it is required that
the city adhere to the state law. The city ordinance said that if
there were less than a year left in the mayoral term, aldermen could
appoint an acting mayor. However, the state law said that a mayor
could be appointed if there were less than two years left in the
term.
Johnson said, though the city acted according to law there were many
questions that came forth because they were not following city
ordinance. He said making an amendment now would solve this issue
for the future.
The language of the new ordinance will reflect that the city will
follow state rules and will include a statement that these rules may
change “from time to time” as state rules are amended.
Talking about this issue brought Alderman Todd Mourning to question
if there are other ordinances that need to be updated as well?
Johnson said, no doubt there were. At the moment, the practice is
that as city departments encounter these situations they can be
brought to the council to seek amendments. Johnson said the city
could continue in this fashion, or if aldermen wish, they could
implement a full review of city ordinances and make amendments as
they see fit. He said that such an overview would probably be an
ongoing process that could take a year or even two.
Appointment of Commissioners
Cooper told the council that in his first week as acting mayor, he
had reviewed the list of appointments to city committees and
commissions, noting the appointments that have expired. He had
personally contacted all the expired appointments and confirmed that
each person is willing to serve a new term. He said those persons
will be asked to serve again.
The appointments will be as follows:
Zoning Board of Appeals: Jim Drew and Rick Zimmer
Historic Preservation Commission: Kay Dobson and Julie Girardeau
Police and Fire: Marilyn Montgomery
Planning Commission: Vic Martinek, Bruce Huskins and Leo Logan
Civil Service: Keith Leesman
Cooper said there were vacancies that will still need to be filled.
He said there is one vacancy on the Zoning Board of Appeals, and two
vacancies on the Planning Commission. He said that he would be
looking to fill those vacancies as soon as possible.
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Pay raises for non-contractual employees
Cooper asked that aldermen consider and be prepared to discuss pay raises for
department heads and non-contractual employees at the July 6th voting meeting.
The council approved raises for these employees at the budget building session,
but the raises have not been implemented because of the lack of an official
mayor.
He was asked if the raises would be retroactive to May 1st. The answer was that
it is at the discretion of the council as to when the raises should take effect.
Pending retirements
Assistant Police Chief Paul Adams advised the council that Detective Tim Kerns
is planning to retire very soon. Adams said he would like to hire a new officer
from the lateral list.
Questions were asked about hiring from the lateral instead of the new hire
lists. Adams said the advantage to hiring laterally is that training and work
supervision is reduced with a lateral hire because they already have had
training and experience that someone fresh off the new hire list has not. He
said lateral hires were able to work alone sooner, and they save the city time
and money.
Adams said there was also another retirement coming up. Right now, details have
not been fully worked out, so he was not at liberty to say who this person is.
Other Business
In the Monday night consent agenda will be an item to afford City Street
Superintendent Walt Landers a clothing allowance of $450 per year. It was noted
that Landers is a “hands on” leader who gets out and works beside his staff. The
job requires special clothing and special shoes for safety purposes. The council
indicated they are pleased with the way Landers performs his duties and leads
his staff and want him to be able to continue doing so. They were in agreement
that Landers should have the clothing allowance.
On the agenda will be a question regarding offering employees a long-term care
insurance policy offered through the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. The
policy would cover long-term health care at home, through private nursing,
assisted living or a nursing home facility. The policy would be at the expense
of the employee through payroll deduction with no money coming out of city
coffers.
The council will also be asked to approve a new prevailing wage document for the
current fiscal year. The prevailing wage document is mandated by the State of
Illinois and must be adopted by the city. The only questions that came from this
were from Mourning, who wanted to know if the prevailing wage laws were a part
of the bid process for city contracts. Johnson said they were. The document is
included in each bid packet, and bidders must be in compliance to qualify for
work in the city.
Council to meet only once more this month
Earlier this year, the council decided that during the summer they would
eliminate one meeting a month from their schedule. The council will meet for the
last time in June next week. There will be no committee of the whole meeting on
June 23rd.
[Nila Smith]
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