By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
If the money is budgeted for an employee, that money should be used on the employees. So said Great Bend City Councilman Gary Parr in a final pitch of his Pay it Forward idea to the council Monday night. The proposal, which began as a reward for first responders, would give all 160 city of Great Bend employees a one-time Christmas bonus in 2025, totaling approximately $80,000 of the $135,000 that was budgeted for an assistant city administrator position that remains unfilled. The council voted 4-2 against the proposal.
Parr said he spoke with 47 city employees about a taxing issue that was addressed by a citizen during the last council meeting. All 47 of those employees agreed a bonus would provide a net benefit. Parr said the employees he spoke to also understood that any bonus awarded would be for 2025 only.
"Well, they're going to expect it every year," Parr said. "They were offended by that - 47 for 47 were offended by that. They said one of the conditions for me being employed with the city is I have to be able to read. They said if it's in black and white, and it says this allocation is going to be a one-time bonus allocation for 2025 only, then they're going to take that at face value. They can read."
Other councilmembers said their position has not changed. Jolene Biggs reminded Parr the city was revenue-neutral last year, meaning no more taxes were collected than the year before despite rising prices. Department heads made cuts.
"They all have wish lists they would like to do," she said. "Basically, we're eliminating that from them. I don't want to take anything away from the employees. They're all great employees, and I appreciate all of them. But I do believe that, to be fiscally responsible, there are departments that cut their budgets, and there are things that are needed."
Councilman Cory Urban said the assistant city administrator position is not unique in that it is vacant, and the council has never offered unallocated funds from other vacant positions as a bonus. He said with best practices, the city has transferred year-end funds for several years, but transferred zero last year due to anticipated costs at the SRCA Drag Strip.
"We held it all back because of the litigation with the drag strip, and we spent every dime of what we held back this year on that," Urban said. "If we hadn't done that, we would have been searching for what, another $700,000 to spend?"
Parr's proposal had been discussed in each of the past two council meetings with no vote taken. Mayor Cody Schmidt asked Parr to clarify his motion for a vote Monday. Councilman Davis Jimenez requested tabling the vote until the Dec. 15 meeting. Schmidt said that's not how it works.
"He made a motion," Schmidt said. "If somebody wants to second his motion, it's not your discretion to tell us wait until next week. He made a motion. It's his floor. If he made a motion, if we get a second, we're going to move on. If not, it's dead in the water."
Jimenez seconded Parr's motion to vote on the matter. Jimenez and Parr were the two "yes" votes compared to "no" votes from Biggs, Rickee Maddox, Kevyn Soupiset, and Tina Mingenback. Urban abstained from the vote due to a conflict of interest with family members, and Alan Moeder was absent from Monday's meeting.