By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

Bronson Mayor Bruce Greenlee Monday said allowing employees to use flex time or compensation time in lieu of working on their days off might be a way to solve the growing problem of too much overtime.

Greenlee said the town’s auditor made a finding of “excessive overtime” when he examined the city’s books. He will give a more detailed report on the audit at some point in the future.

Greenlee said the main problem is special events where the town’s employees earn overtime working on Saturdays, a problem Greenlee said he has discussed with the council previously. He said his comments regarding flex time or compensation time were meant as a proposed solution to the problem of excessive overtime.

He said flex time would mean an employee who would normally work for a big event would take a day off during the regular work week as flex time and earn their normal salary when they worked on Saturday at a festival or some other big event. Greenlee suggested offering flex time at a rate of time-and-a-half just like overtime.

Greenlee said none of the town’s employees are salaried. He said a couple years back the state made a ruling that salaried employees would have to be paid a higher wage. The town couldn’t afford the higher pay and decided instead to put everyone on the clock. The council converted all its employees to hourly workers last year, according to Councilwoman Katie Parks.

The mayor said he has also talked in the past about hiring “event staff” to take care of big events for the city in hopes of driving down the cost of overtime.

Greenlee wasn’t asking for action at the meeting. He asked Town Attorney Steven Warm to take a look a flex time and compensation time to find out if it would work for Bronson. Warm said he will research the issue and return with a report.

“There’s reason to believe that even in public employment, there’s some ability to do that,” Warm said. “Let me figure it out.”

Spotlight Founder Linda Cooper asked if the town had thought about going back to a five-day work week. Bronson is currently on a four-day work week. Employees take Friday through Monday off. The public works department is required to work during emergencies involving the water or sewer system. They must work on their days off if the emergency occurs on a weekend.

Greenlee said he was satisfied with the four-day work week and didn’t think that was the problem. He said the problem was employees having to work for large events like festivals on their day off. Most festivals occur on a Saturday.
“I think you will find that the majority of our overtime is coming from extra activities,” Greenlee responded. “It’s not necessarily workers having to get called out.”

IN OTHER BUSINESS

CDBG GRANT FOR SEWER

Council members gave Town Clerk Pamela Whitehead authority to solicit bids for an engineer and consultant to administer a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for sewer hookups and improvement to the sewage treatment plant.

While the request for permission to solicit bids was an agenda item there were no support documents online indicating that the grant would be used for sewer hookups and improvements to the sewage treatment plant.

Spotlight pointed out the omission to Greenlee. Earlier in the meeting, Cooper had mentioned the lack of supporting documents on the agenda. Greenlee said he would direct the clerk to begin adding support documents to the agenda.

Cooper pointed out that it’s difficult for the public to make a decision on whether to attend the meeting if people don’t know what is to be discussed.

BLUEBERRY FESTIVAL, JULY 4th FIREWORKS

The town is preparing for its annual Blueberry Festival on Saturday, May 19. The Blueberry Pageant is set for 9 a.m. on May 12 at the Bronson Elementary School cafeteria. The Blueberry Festival Parade is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on May 18.

Council members voted unanimously to set aside $5,000 for a fireworks display on July 4. Greenlee said the town’s fireworks show received great comments on social media last year. He said the quality of the fireworks display was comparable to fireworks in other parts of the county.

SEEDING FOOTBALL FIELD

Public Works Director Erik Wise said the town will plant grass seed Tuesday on the football field at James H. Cobb Park. The county road department had earlier supplied heavy equipment and operators to grade the field and slope the dirt for better drainage.

The football field sheds water much better during the heavy rains last week than it had in the past. The county also lowered the opening of a drainage box next to the field for better water flow and removed small hills that were blocking drainage, according to Councilman Robert Partin.

Greenlee directed staff to write a letter to the Levy County Commission commending the board for providing the heavy equipment.

“They went well above what I thought they would,” Greenlee said.

The only problem was that heavy road equipment was brought across the soccer field to reach the football field and left deep tire indentations on the wet ground.

Most of Cobb Park is draining better. Clogged drainage pipes were cleaned out by the town to allow for better drainage.

COUNCILWOMAN ROBERTS OVERSEES PARK

Councilwoman Beatrice Roberts said Cobb Park is her responsibility and if people have complaints about the park they should be directed to her, Parks and Recreation Director Curtis Stacy or Public Works Director Erik Wise.

She said people can call the town clerk if they would like to speak to her. The clerk will pass the information on and she will get back to them.

“Anybody’s got problems with the park let me or Curtis or Erik know and we’ll handle it because we got grant money to do all the work,” she said. “It was already seconded and motioned. The county was contacted to do this work.”

JIM MILTON CEMETERY

Councilwoman Beatrice Roberts said the cemetery committee met before the council meeting and asked if someone could identify all the veterans buried in the cemetery. Roberts asked Elijah Williams, who often visits the cemetery, if he could identify all the veteran graves.

Roberts said the cemetery committee was also wondering if pavilions similar to those at Cobb Park could be installed at the cemetery. She said if grant money can’t be found, the money would have to be raised from private sources.

CLARIFYING COMMENTS

Greenlee said a comment he made to Councilman Jason Hunt a couple of meetings ago regarding a generator for the town’s only traffic light, was to compliment him, not demean him.

Greenlee said he was glad Hunt brought the generator issue to the council’s attention because so many times things like that are overlooked.

Greenlee said he never demeans fellow council members or employees in public meetings.

“I’m never going to call out an employee in one of these meetings and I’m never going to say a demeaning word about a council member,” Greenlee said.

But the mayor wanted to clarify what he had said.

“That’s something I wanted to get off me,” he said.

RECEIVING DONATED FIRE TRUCK

Fire Chief Dennis Russell said his department has inherited a mini-pumper truck from Levy County. The mini-pumper is a one ton truck with a fire truck engine mounted on a brush truck body. The council voted to accept the truck.
Russell said the truck can be used to fight a house fire like a pumper truck. The four-wheel-drive vehicle can be used in sandy areas where a pumper might bog down in the sand.
The truck was owned by the Department of Public Safety, which is operated by the Levy County Commission.

LOSING SUSIE ROBINSON

Longtime Deputy Clerk Susie Robinson is retiring to take care of her elderly mother. Robinson said her mother wasn’t feeling well in January and she didn’t feel it was fair to the town for her to be gone that much. Robinson has worked for the town 10 years. She is the longest-serving employee on staff.
Greenlee commended Robinson on her decision to give up her job to care for a parent.

“There’s nothing more noble than a child wanting to take care of their Mom, take care of a parent,” Greenlee said. “I have a lot of pride in that for my Mom. I think the world of you for doing this. I’m definitely going to miss you. You’ve helped me out a ton with your knowledge.”

“I’m only a phone call away; I’m only a phone call away. I promise,” Robinson responded. “I will help you any way I possibly can.”

Town of Bronson Regular Meeting April 16, 2018
Posted April 17, 2018