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Century Council President Takes Issue With Mayor’s Employee Compensation Policies
August 23, 2017
The president of the Century Town Council has taken issue with some of the employee compensation practices implemented by the town’s mayor, saying that he is exceeding his spending limit.
Ann Brooks said the town charter says Mayor Henry Hawkins can’t spend more than $199.99 without prior council authorization.
She said Hawkins has established a new overtime policy that includes four hours overtime for any employee attending a council meeting or workshop, “even if they are only at the meeting for an hour, and even if they have not worked 40 hours of regular time for the week.”
She said $1,425.2 was paid in overtime for the week of August 6-10 — $563.20 for employees attending an August 7 council meeting and $832.07 for an August 9 budget meeting.
“I do not believe our budget can handle this type of wasteful spending,” Brooks said. In the future, employees will be paid for actual time at meetings they are required to attend.
Brooks also took issue with pay increase given to gas department supervisor Kim Godwin. The council voted earlier this year to increase Godwin’s pay from $13.26 per hour to $18.26 per hour. The increase coincided with her move from a clerk to gas superintendent. The council voted at the time to give Godwin additional increases as she obtained more education and training for her new position.
After Godwin obtained additional certifications, Hawkins raised her pay to that of other department superintendents — $21.30 per hour — retroactive to April 1, which was 11 days after the initial council vote. That amounted to an additional $6,323.
A council vote failed to remove Godwin’s raise.
“Our gas department is in a very grim state. The council voted in June to loan the gas department $95,562 from the Special Revenue account,” Brooks said.
Brooks has instructed Hawkins to eliminate a new policy allowing “some employees” to remain on the clock if they go to the doctor or are sic.
“We have a sick leave policy in our charter that gives employees who have been employed six months to one year 40 hours of sick leave, those employed one to five years 80 hours of leave, and on according to their number of years of service. When additional time is given, without reducing the sick leave allowance, it is the same as spending money that has not been authorized,” she said.
NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
14 Responses to “Century Council President Takes Issue With Mayor’s Employee Compensation Policies”
Why do the town employee’s get to drive town trucks all over the place after hours and I know of 1 that spends more hrs at home then on the job during work hrs
This has nothing to do with being a democrat. Seems to me, the mayor wants to be fair to the town employees and went a little overboard. Council pointing out that it was excessive spending when the actual numbers were crunched is what they are there for. Checks and balance ! Now that the mayor and council see the actual numbers, i’m sure a compromise can be reached. My suggestion would be is to let the employees clock in and out of any mandatory meetings so that they can be compensated properly with normal overtime rules.
People need to remember where our last mayor was when the tornado came through.. just saying leave the mayor alone and let him do his job…
Opinions are come a dime a dozen. Personally the facts need to be looked at. I applaud Ann Brooks on her warchful eye of the town spending. Yes, Kim Godwin did or is taking the required classes but she does not know the first thing about stopping, fixing or finding a gas leak. Its her employees that are doing the work toting her. They have more certifications than she does and they arent and havent gotten raises. Yes I said it. So, please before you promote someone next time, make sure they have the qualifications and it will prevent some of what your “gripping” about. If anyone deserves a raise its the employees toting Ms Godwin. She does the paperwork but when it comes to the actual work, she doesnt have a clue. GET IT, MRS BROOKS. My issue is not with the mayor but with the poor hiring of candidates to do the job.
Did Godwin ever do the web site as promised? What is it?
The gas dept status changed.
.Ann is a smart accountant.
Give employees comp time.
One of the problems it seems is the mayor is a Democrat.
Needs to get his head out of his delirium about the Give A Mint. (government)
Century voters…shame on you..
I commend the council for standing up to Ms. Brooks continued bullying of the mayor. It seems to me that she is willing to take money out of the pockets of the town employees to make the new mayor look bad. Your mayor lost, get over it already and stop all this nit-picking!
Century is a cluster…Why would you vote to increase Kim’s salary and then try to vote to remove it? Did you not look at the numbers before the initial vote? It appears the Mayor did what was agreed upon on that matter.
I agree with employees getting paid when attending workshops/meetings but not over 2 hours if the meeting was less than that.
More transparency is needed.
If an employee is requested or required to go to a council/budget meeting, then they should be paid overtime. That is time out of their day outside of the normal working hours, they are having to do something for their job. Just like any other job, if you work over the 40 hours or have sick leave/vacation time plus hours worked totaled to 40 hours and still had to attend a meeting, then it should be overtime. If they are going to grip about the overtime, then make the employee leave early one day so they will not have overtime. The town has several employees that are on call everyday for after hours service for leaks. If that employee gets called in, then they should have to be paid overtime no matter what. It just seems that Ann Brooks is wanting to grip about every little thing that the Mayor is doing, and most things she is gripping about is things the employees have been doing for some time now. It is not something the Mayor just started. Now the new overtime policy may be a little much with being paid 4 hours minimum, but the employee should still be paid the overtime that they were working even if it is at a meeting. As far as Godwin’s pay raise. The COUNCIL voted to give her the raise and even voted to give her another raise once she completed training. So why grip about the pay raise when the MAYOR did what he was suppose to do and the COUNCIL is the one that approved the pay raise. That is not going over the Mayor spending amount.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
this is just the stuff we find out about. one can only wonder?stay alert ann and what are the other council members doing?
Is Century doing any hiring ? I might have to come out of retirement and apply !
That would be equivalent to buying votes, you will never be able to remove him. WOW. 80 plus stay clocked in?
The mayor keeps exceeding his authority. This needs to stop.
Thank you council president Ms. Brooks. Hawkins please read the charter.
When is the next election. Actually it he keeps violating his oath of office, it may be time for a recall. It is in the charter and can be enforced.