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NEWS BRIEFS
Council votes to save three jobs
The Huntington City Council voted Monday to restore three positions to the floodwall division, but it came amid harsh words about Mayor Kim Wolfe's decision to switch to a four-day work week for many city employees.
HUNTINGTON -- The Huntington City Council voted Monday to restore three positions to the floodwall division, but it came amid harsh words about Mayor Kim Wolfe's decision to switch to a four-day work week for many city employees.
By a 7-3 vote with one absence, the council approved a budget resolution that moves approximately $94,000 to the floodwall division in the fiscal 2011 budget, which begins Thursday, July 1. The money will prevent the layoff of three employees.
However, six other city positions that are currently filled will be eliminated, according to Administration and Finance Director Brandi Jacobs-Jones. Three are in the city's motor pool, while one each will be eliminated from the finance, information technology and human resources departments.
The money to save the three floodwall division jobs became available after Wolfe's administration opted for four-day work weeks instead of 20-day furloughs for about 125 employees as originally planned in the 2011 budget that City Council approved.
Wolfe announced June 4 that he was reducing by 10 percent the pay of employees who work in City Hall-based offices as well as several public works departments through reduced work weeks.
Employees in the police, fire, sanitation and trash departments as well as the Municipal Parking Board are not affected by the pay cuts, meaning their operations and office hours will not change.
Rather than cutting employees' rate of pay and salaries by 10 percent, Wolfe's administration chose to reduce their work weeks from 40 to 36 hours. Beginning July 6, the affected employees will work four nine-hour shifts Monday through Thursday and get a three-day weekend.
City Hall, meanwhile, will be closed on Fridays beginning July 9. It will be open to the public from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, although some office hours will vary within that time frame.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 598, which represents a portion of the 125 employees whose hours and pay would be affected by the mayor's planned cutbacks, has filed a lawsuit in Cabell Circuit Court. The lawsuit argues the compressed work schedule is a breach of the union's collective bargaining agreement, which defines a work week as 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week. Circuit Judge Jane Hustead has scheduled a hearing for 4 p.m. Wednesday, July 7.
The union isn't the only group upset over the compressed work week. City Council members expressed their frustration in the days following the mayor's announcement and continued railing against it Monday night. Councilman Steve Williams spoke for other members when he said Wolfe's administration should have informed the council, or at least asked Council Chairman Jim Insco for input, before announcing the changes.
"This was poorly crafted and misguided," Williams told Jacobs-Jones, who was filling in for an absent Wolfe on Monday. "You didn't have to inform us and you didn't owe it to us, but a simple courtesy would have been nice. Operating as a team is one of the reasons we have worked so well together."
Williams then said he would vote against the resolution, even though its failure would not prevent the compressed work schedule from taking effect next week. Voting against the resolution would be Williams' way of "sending a message" to the administration, he said.
But Williams ultimately was one of the seven council members who voted for the resolution to restore funding to the floodwall division. He was joined by council members Sandra Clements, Russ Houck, Frances Jackson, Nate Randolph, Jim Ritter and Rebeccah Thacker. Council members Mark Bates, Scott Caserta and Insco voted against the measure. Teresa Loudermilk was absent.
Wolfe did not attend the meeting because of a family commitment, Jacobs-Jones said.
Williams said after the meeting that saving three positions in the floodwall division was more important than making a point.
"There are other ways of sending a message to the administration, but I can't do it on the backs of three employees," he said.
Insco said he voted against restoring funding for the three floodwall employees because cutting the positions was the wish of council when it passed the budget a few months ago. The three positions are responsible for mowing the four-and-a-half miles of earthen levee in the city, among other duties.
"We were told at the time they could make it without the three positions," Insco said. "I don't believe contracting for grass cutting was ever given a serious look by the administration."
Aside from mowing and trimming, the employees are responsible for working on the floodwall's 17 pump stations and 45 flood gates, Jacobs-Jones said.
"Had the employees been laid off, we would have lost knowledge and experience of our pump stations and floodwall maintenance, which are essential services to protect our community in high-water times," she said.
Jacobs-Jones also echoed her comments from last month that switching to a four-day work week for some employees was the best solution to provide quality of services to citizens.
"Rather than implementing four weeks of furloughs, the administrative team determined it would be best for continuity of service to ensure that offices were fully staffed and had set hours that citizens could rely upon versus fragmented staffing and hours that were not consistent," she said.
