City council considers bonuses, lay offs on The Murfreesboro Post

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City council considers bonuses, lay offs

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By: CHRISTIAN GRANTHAM, Post Contributor

Posted: Friday, June 4, 2010 1:57 pm

Mayor Tommy Bragg proposed to the Murfreesboro City Council at its Thursday night meeting a one-time bonus option for city employees for the upcoming 2010-2011 budget.

The proposal gives 777 city employees a one-time $750 bonus as the city plans to layoff 14 employees, a move that concerned newly elected councilwoman Madelyn Scales Harris.

"I'm for everyone getting this raise," Harris said. "But we are giving raises and then putting people out of work. We are talking about people's livelihood."

Bragg pointed out the bonuses would benefit the low end of the pay scale more than a raise. The proposed one-time bonus would save the city money by eliminating scheduled pay raises and would be paid from fund balance.

"If you take a 1 percent pay raise, you have to add that in perpetuity," Bragg told the council. "Same with that 2 percent and 3.5 percent. My recommendation would be to look at the $750 one-time bonus."

The 14 city employees who will be laid off next month will get two months severance and receive two days of employment counseling costing the city $7,500. Harris wants City Manager Rob Lyons to find a way to give them more.

"If we do this, I'm asking that we look at extending their pay more than two months," Harris said. "Just look at it and put ourselves in these people's shoes."

Councilman Toby Gilley said he understands the tough decisions before the council but said the council has to run government like a business.

"The difference between looking at this and the bonus is the difference in recurring expenses being paid out of non-recurring money," Gilley said. "And that's just not fiscally responsible to take from one group of employees to give to another."

Councilman and small business owner Ron Washington agreed, but empathized with Harris's point.

"It's the nature of business," Washington said. "It happens everyday. Don't like it. Don't want it, but at least we can take care of those employees better than two months."

Councilman Shane McFarland said he trusted department head recommendations for the layoffs, some of whom said the economy made less work for those hired during good times.

"I don't want to layoff," McFarland said. "But how can we make decisions by employing more people than we need? Government can't employ people just to employ people."

Lyons said the city is doing more than most would expect in the private sector.

"The city will pay two months of transition pay. We've included money to help assist for what life has in store for them next," Lyons said. "A company will give them two days of interview tips. We'll do this before June 30 so they can do this on work time."

Layoffs of 14 city employees will occur before July 1, and Lyons will report back to council on extending severance pay at the next scheduled city council meeting.

•••

The city council also took up a second reading of proposed changes to Haynes Drive. Both Harris and Gilley voted down recommendations by City Engineer Chris Griffith and Transportation Director Dana Richardson.

A public meeting was held May 17 at Siegel Elementary School to seek feedback as requested by the council on first reading. Only 53 people showed up, some of whom were city employees. Only 18 provided comments, most in support of the recommendations.

Both Harris and Gilley wanted to try placing three-way stop signs instead of the recommendations, a move Transportation Director Richardson said would be devastating.

"The congestion for that would be horrific," Richardson asserted. "The unintended consequences would be that all that traffic congestion would start using side streets to avoid that. That would probably be a poor solution to addressing that."

The city engineer also thought stop signs were a bad idea.

"You start backing up cars into neighborhoods, it's crippling. Look at all the single-family lots in there. You'd hurt their ability to get anywhere in a timely manner."

Bragg put traffic problems that stop signs would create in political terms for the council.

"You talk about getting voter turnout at election time. If we put a stop sign on Haynes Drive, we're going to have voter turn out in that area," Bragg said.

Under the proposed changes, the city will have to purchase right of way from five property owners. Only one property owner affected was in attendance at the May 17 meeting and approves of the changes.

Roughly 9,300 cars use Haynes Drive between Memorial Boulevard to Wiltshire Drive everyday. Between 2007 and 2009, 65 accidents have occurred on this stretch of road with 60 percent happening between two back-to-back curves that do not meet current road standards.

Changes would bring the two curves to 30 MPH compliance and add a turning lane for the Regency Park Subdivision. Final estimate of completed work is roughly $400,000.

Tagged under City, Hayes Drive, Madelyn Scales Harris, Rob Lyons, Ron Washington, Toby Gilley, Tommy Bragg, Traffic

Member Opinions:

By: postfan on 6/4/10
So they are going to lay off 14 people, give everyone a bonus, and borrow $400K to widen a road, not mention the $3.4 million they borrowed to fix a swimming pool....When will the MADNESS end????

By: shotgun on 6/4/10
the madness will only end when the voters chose it to end....lay off people and then give others bonuses....UNBELIEVABLE!!!

By: ntheknow on 6/6/10
What this city needs is more water slides.....oh, and Mexican restaurants.......lol