Councilman questions departments

At the Moorcroft Town Council’s most recent meeting, Councilman Bob Stewart addressed three concerns he had about the public works and police departments.

Public Works Hours

Stewart brought forth the issue of how many days a week the Public Works Department works – currently four ten-hour days per week.

“I would like to see our city and street guys go to five days a week, eight hours during the winter months like how we have our signs, the first of November to the first of April… that way, we have everybody here on board on Friday in case we get some snow,” he said.

“To me, I think it would be cost efficient instead of bringing somebody in and paying them overtime to help out. I think it would also help keep our streets a lot cleaner.”

Allison argued in favor of keeping the status quo, however.

“We plow downtown before everybody gets here, if we go to eight-hour days, we’re not going to be able to get there early in the morning; it doesn’t make any sense to have my guys here at 6 a.m. and leave at 2 p.m. when most of our callouts come later in the afternoon – it just doesn’t make sense.”

Mayor Ben Glenn advocated the four ten-hour days as well, saying, “It’s just more productive.”

“I’ve disagreed with that since I’ve been on the council,” Councilman Dale Petersen spoke frankly, “Especially in the wintertime, when it’s dark. I think ten-hour days are not productive in the wintertime.”

Councilman Austin Smith said, “I’m not in favor of half the year a five-day week and half the year, four. Either pick a five-day work week or a four-day work week and that be that.”

Councilwoman Heidi Humpal did not have a problem with the seasonal transition between working hours, citing other businesses that follow similar patterns, “So that part doesn’t bug me.”

Stewart then addressed the director’s concern about possible overtime with the changed hours during the winter, “So you’re telling me, Cory, that even though you work your four tens, your guys don’t work any overtime during the winter, when it snows? To me, that’s a bad excuse.”

Allison responded, assuring the councilman, “In the last six years, our overtime [has been] cut by probably about four percent every year.”

Prior to the election of Humpal and Stewart, the council instated certain criteria regarding snow plowing throughout town to mitigate the then approximately 30% overtime rate, much of which was eaten up by snow plowing.

“You guys, as a council, shut us down and had us not plow as often. We used to plow every weekend if it snowed – any time it snowed,” Allison said. Glenn explained the town was working for a more fiscally responsible weekend response.

Petersen then recalled to his fellow council a discussion in which the group participated at a previous meeting directly regarding this issue. A priority list was to be created and maintained between council and public works to ensure successful completion of work, regarding, “What has to get done? We provide that to Cory; it has to get done and we’re not going to negotiate these things...How you do it is on you.”

“If it’s ten-hour days, but it’s not getting done, then you’re going to answer to the council as to why,” Petersen continued. “If we’re truly going to go based on what our discussion…We provide that directive to Cory… When we’re saying it has to be done, you had better figure out how to do it. You do what you have to do within the parameters we set… Personally, I think you guys should work five eights. You’re hired for a reason; the reason is to make those personnel decisions.”

Glenn agreed and added, “It’s not to never plow on a weekend, it’s not that. If it’s bad, a phone call – Yep, let’s do it.”

Allison assured council that he does just that, “Every weekend it snows, I call the mayor and if he doesn’t answer, I call one of the councilmen…I called 15-20 times last year. It’s never that we just don’t plow.”

Town Vehicles

The second issue about which Stewart felt strongly was personnel driving town vehicles home. Moorcroft police as well as on-call public works crewmen and Allison do so at this time.

“I feel our city vehicles need to stay in town during off business hours…The mayor said he wants to save this town money, I feel that if our vehicles stay in town, that would help save the town money, wear and tear on vehicles. It would be a save all the way around,” Stewart said.

Smith did a quick calculation regarding these costs to the town to which Stewart alluded, providing actual numbers, “It costs the town $110.40 a month for Cory to drive his truck home. That includes tires at 60,000 miles and $1600 and oil changes at 5000 miles and $350. That’s at ten miles to the gallon, if you get 12, that number actually goes down, probably closer to $90. I’m fine with $110 a month, that’s $1300 a year, I don’t think that’s going to break the town. I think getting to drive his truck home is a perk of having the job that he does.”

Insurance also covers this and the police vehicles; at the end of year taxation is paid by the employee as this perk is considered part of the employee’s pay.

After Stewart shared his angst regarding the relatively consistent $2000 fuel bill combining public works and first responders, the mayor agreed with Stewart that this combined fuel bill should be itemized to allow better tracking by the council.

“I would like to see that bill broken out. I’m sure it varies with our ambulance hauls, how much training our fire has been doing and if we’re going to talk facts and not just round numbers, that’s what we need to do,” said Glenn.

Chief on Salary

Stewart was also adamant that Chief of Police Bill Bryant, who is currently on salary, be returned to hourly wage.

“He is on call 24/7, 365… I’ve been in this town for 20 years, it seems like every two or three years, this town is hiring a new officer. They’re burnt out from so many hours and doing this and doing that… How many chiefs have we gone through in this town?” he said.

“The simple fact is we’re overworking them and we’ve got to look at it this way because, in January, our new officer is going to be gone for 16 weeks and that puts us right back to two officers, one salaried and one hourly.”

He spoke of the chief’s dedication, “I have to give kudos to our chief – he’s sticking it out in this little town. I feel he’s being pushed, overworked, underappreciated and underpaid. That’s why I feel he should go hourly instead of salary.”

When Stewart asked Bryant to “speak up” regarding the vacation time he has worked, the chief stated, “That’s the risk of the job.” He said that he has been working on average, approximately 94 hours per pay period.

When asked the reason for this significant overtime, Bryant listed officers on vacation, sick and training.

The council is considering options to relieve some of the pressure on the chief, including the possibility of a fourth officer and Petersen reminded Bryant that this, too, is the responsibility of department heads: “You guys have to come us and say ‘Look, here’s the deal.”

The mayor agreed.

There were no decisions regarding changing any aspects of these issues, but the council will further examine costs of potential change for hours and personnel.