The Great Bend City Council on Monday heard two requests for spending that were not on the agenda. One was a suggestion from councilman Gary Parr to use $47,500 in idle funds for a one-time bonus for emergency service employees and a sign-on bonus for new firefighters and EMTs. The other was a request for $5,000 to support the Core Community of Barton County. No action was taken on either request.
Councilman Cory Uran presided over the meeting in the absence of Mayor Cody Schmidt. Councilwoman Jolene Biggs was also absent. Councilwoman Tina Mingenback attended via telephone.
Parr repeated a suggestion he made at a previous City Council meeting. The City has funds set aside for an assistant city administrator and has not filled that position for 10 months.
“Do we even need that position filled, as effective as we’re running now?” he asked. Parr said City Administrator Logan Burns and City Clerk/Finance Director Shawna Schafer are managing the city business competently.
“We have funds for an assistant administrator,” Parr said. “Let’s give that back to emergency services.” He proposed $15,000 that would be earmarked for six sign-on bonuses – $500 to start, $1,000 after they complete six months and $1,000 after they finish their first year of employment. The other $32,500 that hasn’t been spent would go to the city's 65 emergency services employees as a one-time bonus this year. “The morale will go through the roof.”
“And I’m not saying the rest of the city employees aren’t doing a good job,” he said. “With what we have left in the budget for this time around, I want to concentrate on our emergency services, our law enforcement, our fire and our EMS. The money’s there. It’s not like we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Parr put his proposal in the form of a motion and councilman Davis Jimenez seconded it to allow for further discussion. Parr later withdrew his motion, seeing the council wasn’t likely to approve it that night. Urban said he should present a written proposal that can come before the council as an agenda item in the future.
“We have 160 employees,” Urban said. “I have a really, really hard time saying that we’re going to take this little piece of pie and divide it among 60 people and leave another 100 people right before the holidays, saying thanks but no thanks. That’s really tough for me to sell.” He also noted that the council is looking at an across-the-board 4% pay increase for city employees next year.
“I would recommend putting something together on paper with the hard numbers, and then bringing it back to the next meeting,” Urban said to Parr.
Councilman Kevyn Soupiset agreed, saying, “We need to process this.”
Councilman Alan Moeder said it would be a “very dangerous thing to even start thinking about giving somebody a bonus in the city and not everybody a bonus in the city. I think you’re just going to create a bunch of hardship between employees. If you can’t give it to every employee at one time, don’t give it to any – because it’s going to create complications.”
Core request
The council also heard a report from Janice Perez, poverty coach and resource coordinator for the Barton County Core Community, a 501(c)(3).
Core has been here since 2017, helping people in poverty build the resources they need to thrive.
“Our program is making a huge impact,” Perez said, providing some numbers.
She requested the City support Core financially, saying Core is asking for $5,000 this year and expects to ask for $7,000-$10,000 next year. She advised that Barton County will match funds from the cities up to $10,000.
“We have a lot of strong partners here but we need more,” she said. The program has relied on grants it will no longer receive, and is dealing with funding cuts. “I believe that we are giving back what we are asking for.”
Councilman Alan Moeder told Perez, “We just did our budget; you’re a little late.” He said he donates to nonprofit organizations personally but added, “I do not think the government should take care of them.”
Councilman Gary Parr said he didn’t want to sit idly by and do nothing. “I don’t think we should say ‘no.’”
Councilman Cory Urban said the City has cut back on providing funds to nonprofit organizations. “We’ve told other people ‘no’ recently.” He said people listening to Perez’s remarks in the audience or via the live-stream of the meeting might want to donate to Core Community. The group is listed on the Golden Belt Community Foundation’s “Giving Tuesday” roster.
