By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The point of a good discussion is to find common ground. During Monday night's Great Bend City Council meeting, that common ground was not to be found. At the Oct. 20 meeting, Councilmember Gary Parr suggested allocating unused funds for the vacant assistant city administrator position to reward first responders. During Monday's meeting, Parr brought forth a motion to do just that.
"I think these guys deserve a hand up," he said. "These guys are out here protecting us and serving us every single day of the week, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. They're running multiple shifts. And I'm not saying the rest of the city employees aren't doing a good job. I'm not saying that. I would never say that."
The rest of the council agreed it's not that easy. Parr's motion included a sign-on bonus for up to six new police or fire employees. Those new hires would receive $500 upon signing, $1,000 after six months on the job, and another $1,000 after one year of employment. Additionally, the 65 current police and fire employees would each receive a $500 one-time bonus. The total cost of $47,500, Parr said, is still less than what the city could have paid an assistant administrator. Councilmember Cory Urban asked about the other 100 city employees.
"I have a really, really hard time saying we're going to take this little piece of pie and divide it out amongst 60 people and leave another 100 people, right before the holidays, saying thanks but no thanks," Urban said. "That's really tough for me to sell."
"I don't want to leave any of the city employees out, I don't," Parr answered. "But the money is there. The guys who work for the city, (City Administrator Logan Burns) and everybody, most of those guys have an 8-5. These guys are doing multiple shifts, and they're 24/7, 365."
"Some of our lowest paid employees are guys who are working 10-11 o'clock at night," Urban said.
"I think it's getting into a very dangerous thing to even start thinking about giving somebody a bonus in the city and not everybody a bonus in the city," said mayor-elect Alan Moeder. "I think it's going to create a bunch of hardship between employees. If you can't give it to every employee at one time, don't give it to any because it's going to cause complications."
Parr further suggested that city operations are running smoothly, and the city may be able to eliminate the assistant administrator position in the future. Until then, unused salary funds could be used to benefit other city employees or local charities.
"I think (City Clerk Shawna Shafer) and Logan are doing a great job," he said. "I've talked to both of them. I don't see that they're seeing anything that's a bump in the road to them that they're just overwhelmed and can't handle this. So, maybe moving forward, we can address that and, maybe later on, after the first of the year, do we even need that position filled with as efficient as we're running things right now?"
Urban and others suggested Parr formally present numbers to city administration so the matter can be brought before the council in an appropriate manner. Parr's motion was not seconded, and he withdrew his motion to be presented at a future meeting.