Cloverdale struggles with its finances and employees
The Cloverdale Town Council meeting Tuesday evening was packed with some expected and very unexpected topics.
Clerk Treasurer Cheryl Galloway came before the council first asking for each members goals for the future of the town.
All council member's were in agreement that they would like to see the town get out of debt and grow.
"I think we need a plan on growth and a lot of other things," said council member Dennis Padgett. "Everything needs to be looked at."
Saving money has been priority number one for Galloway since she first began the job. Each meeting she comes before the board with new ways to try and accomplish this task, however, this meeting she came and aimed her words at just one person, Utility Manager Rich Saucerman.
Galloway in an effort to cut cost, came before the council with Saucerman's previous monthly report in hand. Without input from Saucerman, she estimated the amount of time it should take for the utility workers to complete certain tasks, judging the amount of time based on what hotel maids get to clean a room.
"I went through and calculated time worked for the employees. The motels at the top give the girls 15-minutes to go into a room, clean the room and come out," said Galloway. "There's 340 hours unaccounted for."
She noted to the board that if the council been charging a $36 flat fee for all 139 abandoned homes in the town, the town would have lost $1,029,888. Galloway previously had addressed the flat fee during last month's meeting.
"This has been going on for about three or four months with you and Richard, but you've been going down to the sewer plant and checking his figures and all this stuff. There needs to be a happy medium here and there needs to be the whole truth told," said Padgett. "It seems like it comes out of only one side with you. This is what the whole town is. You spent over $80,000 on Khron and Associates in the first two months of this year and now you're up there looking for money.
"You're sitting up there saying that kind of stuff to him, running down him and his boys. All these boys are calling me all day long. He's the utility manager. You're the clerk treasurer."
Although, Galloway had stated that it was nothing personal between her and Richard, the damage was already done.
"This is the trouble with the whole town. Everyone wants to be a town board member. They need to run if they want to be a town board member. Everyone needs to know their place in this town," Padgett said. "It's crazy the way we are doing things down here. You need to tell it how it is for once, instead of telling it one sided. I like you and I like Richard, but we're never going to get ahead if someone out here is spending all kinds of money and blaming the other one for it."
Galloway informed the board that the money that was spent on Khron was to clean up the books, which had been a mess for several years.
"I'm trying to clean up the books," said Galloway. "I'm pretty close now. This is stuff that I don't even know what happened. My number one is the people that are paying $93 per month on their utilities.
"This is the problem, we're in hard times. People just want to keep charging and charging people to death," said Padgett. "Cheryl, I feel for you, but people have to live too. I don't think you can charge people for something they don't use (referencing the $36 flat fee). It never ends."
Many of the council members as well as community residents agreed with not imposing another fee on members. However, Galloway believes that charging a $36 flat fee on homes that are being used for storage or just sitting there will encourage the owners to clean them up or just sell them.
Saucerman got his chance to speak his mind on the issues brought up by Galloway during his report. He fired back by offering to step down from the utility manager position.
"I think the clerk made it clear about how she feels. There's a lot of things that she said she didn't know," said Saucerman clearly bothered by Galloway's suggestions. "And she's right. There's a lot of things she doesn't know. There's not a work order for every single thing we do. I stand before you right now and say I'll go back to the water plant operator."
All board members were in agreement that they wanted Saucerman to stay in the position he was at.
"I don't have any trouble with you. There seems to be stuff that we can do, but you're short handed at times. I think you're doing a good job with what you've got," said Padgett. We've been struggling with a lot of things around this town. I say keep on going and crack the whip on it. Everyone's got their own position and everyone just needs to do their own job."
Saucerman also addressed the issue of how the utility money is being spent. Galloway had previously stated that there was $30,000 allotted for repairs and maintenance.
"There's no way all these years that it comes out of the repairs and maintenance," said Saucerman. "If so Khron has really done a worse job than we thought."
Sacerman was informed that a breakdown of his budget will be given to him in the coming weeks.
Among other issues discussed was refinancing the SRF bonds on the 2003 wastewater. Galloway came before the council with two proposals that were drawn up by Steve Brock. However, a third proposal was drawn up with both Galloway and James McKee, who works at the Cloverdale First National.
The third proposal, allows the town to pay off more towards the end rather than in the beginning, which the town would like to do.
The council decided that the issue would be tabled until Galloway talks to Brock to see if proposal three is do-able.
The council also addressed the issue of hiring a financial officer, which may bring different proposals to the table than Brock. The board will hold a special meeting to discuss that issue within the next coming weeks.
Building Inspector Mark Cassida also came before the council to discuss the demolishing of three homes for a total of $20,000. Cassida was advised that funds would be better used to help repair the drainage issues on Lafayette Street in particular.
"You don't have to have everything engineered," said Padgett. "We're going to have to work on it."
Saucerman agreed that the utility workers will try and install some pipes and clean out ditches to fix the issue.