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Special Meeting of the City Council <br />September 17, 2002 <br />Page 6 <br /> <br />After additional discussion, it was the consensus of the City Council to wait <br />until Thursday night to finish the General Fund Budget so that Fire Chief <br />Grooms could be present in order for him to speak for his department. <br /> <br />After discussion was had regarding overtime and the way it is calculated in the <br />Fire Department, Mayor Pro Tem Manning suggested going back to the old <br />way of calculating the overtime for the Fire Department. After further <br />discussion, Mayor Pro Tem Manning withdrew his suggestion. <br /> <br />City Attorney Schenk advised the City Council that there was not a show of <br />hands on the employees' reduction. City Manager Malone said he still <br />recommends that the City Council give the Fire Chief an opportunity to appear <br />in support of his department. <br /> <br />With a show of hands, the Council Members agreed to reduce three police <br />officers in the Police Department and six firefighters in the Fire Department. <br />The City Council was in agreement, with exception of Councilman Bell, to <br />reduce the nine employees in their respective departments. Councilman Bell <br />stated that without Chief Grooms here to defend himself and his department, <br />he did not feel that was fair. <br /> <br />Councilman Plata asked Terry Townsend, Director of Public Works, to come <br />forward. He asked Mr. Townsend about the increase in personnel in his <br />department. Mr. Townsend advised that in the past five years he had only <br />added one Maintenance I Employee in the Parks Department. Before that, he <br />did not think there were additions in years in the Parks Department. Mr. <br />Townsend said the records will show a difference in the number of people in <br />those Departments. He advised this was done when he first went to Public <br />Works due to an administrative move that he made in employees that were in <br />the Street Department. He moved them into the Parks Department and made <br />it the Parks and Right-of-Ways Department. Those employees take care of the <br />city's drainage ditches. Mr. Townsend stated that he felt that at that he would <br />be able to accomplish more in those drainage issues if he separated those <br /> <br /> <br />