Pay raises after election, open meeting law

7/8/10

The City Staff is also budgeted to get a 3% pay increase this year.  With the state of the economy, the bad debt ratios, and the large increases given in past years, I don't think raises would be justified.  The City's debt service coverage is 32%, which has gotten worse every year since 2006 and will likely get worse.  An acceptable ratio would be above 100%. Montrose has a high debt per capita, which is about double the comparison, though it is usually higher in Cities financing infrastructure.  Looking at prior reviews for the City Clerk in the most recent 10 year period, the Raises were usually given during April - July.  They waited until after the last election to give raises [2008 Knodel, Nelson, Peterson, Kauffman], I wonder if that is what their plan is this year?

The League of MN Cities recommendation was presented AND adopted at the June meeting to have the Fire Chief selected versus elected.  How come the League's Model O.T. policy hasn't been adopted?  This policy states that "Vacation, sick leave and paid holidays do not count toward “hours worked”."  What occurs is Employees comp time out at 1 1/2 times over 40 hours that includes Vacation, Holiday, or Sick pay.  In one week if an employee worked 36 hours and took 8 hours of vacation for a total of 44 hours, they would bank 6 hours of Comp time!  This type of activity does occur.

Open Meeting Law
The City Clerk announced at the 6/14 Council meeting that there was going to be a Council Workshop on June 28th to discuss Finance, Planning and Zoning (P&Z), Open Meeting Law, and the 2011 Budget.  However, when the Special Meeting Notice was sent on 6/22, the only listed Purpose was Financial Review, Training, and any other business that may arise.  The Notice is usually what is posted on the bulletin board.  Then on 6/24, the Workshop Packet went out, and the agenda shows Finance, P&Z, Open Meeting Law, 2010/11 Budget, Marketing Montrose, and Personnel Committee.  Why wasn't this included in the Notice?
See also:  Council Pay, State Review of Open Meeting Law Violations