02 Council Min 08-23-04 Spec. - Laserfiche WebLink

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Special Meeting of the City Council August 23, 2004 Page 8 benefitted the Police Department, but he felt that some they added last year could be cut out. Mayor Fendley said this was the taxpayers money and the taxpayers could contribute through United Way. Councilman Poston asked for a list of charitable requests and what was done by the City last year. On Municipal Court, there was an additional court clerk requested and that was left out of the budget. Mayor Fendley said they would discuss contracting that out in October. For the City Clerk budget, the personnel cost changed and the car allowance was deleted. In the Police Department, Chief Karl Louis asked if he could fill the three patrolmen positions that are vacant. Since it was already in the budget, he said it wouldn’t affect the budget. Chief Louis ask for the authority to appoint an Assistant Chief. City Attorney Schenk said in order for Chief Louis to appoint the Assistant Chief, the Council would have to give him that authority. He said the Civil Service gave the option of either appointing an Assistant Chief or testing for one. Mayor Fendley said this would be brought back to the September meeting. Chief Louis said he would like to reiterate the original requests of keeping the rule of 80 and a 5% pay increase, as the budget allowed. Fire Chief Ronnie Grooms gave handouts to the Council for the Fire Department Budget. He first explained the components that went into overtime, Automatic Overtime, Sick Leave, Injury Leave and Training. He said the rest of the overtime represented what he had to use to maintain minimum staffing. Councilman Bell asked Chief Grooms how he could get the overtime under control. Chief Grooms explained that keeping minimum staffing dictates a lot of the overtime, but he had encouraged his employees to use sick leave only when necessary.