Cloverdale Town Council looks to give incentives to employees

Thursday, April 3, 2014

CLOVERDALE -- The Cloverdale Town Council was called together for a special meeting Tuesday evening to discuss several employee-related issues.

After months of tension between many of the town's employees in regards to the pay scale, President Coweta Patton looked to council members for guidance in establishing incentives for Cloverdale employees for years of service.

"I asked around to different employees if they wanted to give me any ideas on how to make things work a little better around here and especially because we can't give raises right now to some of the employees, we've got some ideas here and one of them was establishing incentives for years of service -- 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 years," Patton explained. "I think it's something we should do, but we need to really talk about how much it should be."

The majority of the council appeared to be on board with such an idea. However, many of the details will need to be worked out before it is enacted.

Patton also looked to the council for guidance in regard to establishing ways for employees to present their ideas as well as incentives if an idea is used.

"As far as years of service I think recognition is enough," Larry Fidler said. "The incentive idea for ideas is very good, especially if its money-saving ideas. I think it's something that you don't want to get carried away with."

All members of the council were on board with establishing somewhat of an employee suggestion box in hopes of having things run smoother.

It was also suggested that two of the council members have quarterly meetings with employees. However, many felt that the meetings should be on an as needed basis since many departments have employee meetings on their own.

Council Vice President Dennis Padgett also made the suggestion of starting an employee safety program to also use as an incentive.

"We need to have some kind of incentive/recognition program," Padgett said.

As a part of the safety program, employees will receive some sort of incentive such as a gift card for every year that the employee doesn't get hurt or have to go on workman's compensation.

"Little stuff like that, you don't realize that, but there are a lot of people that kind of watch what they're doing out there to get that incentive," Padgett said. "Little stuff like that it adds up. If you don't have any of that stuff, a lot of times they don't really care and they tend to get hurt a lot more. If you have a safety program or something going on it does help."

Padgett suggested, from previous experience with such a program, that the incentive increase $25 each year with it maxing out at $100.

"These are very good ideas," Patton said. "I really think our town is going forward. We're starting to do a lot of good things. We don't need anything happening, we don't need hard feelings. We need to just go forward."

In other business:

* The council approved the closing of Water Street, to Grant and to Logan streets for the 175th birthday celebration on June 14. The committee will also be asking local businesses to help sponsor the celebration to help offset expenses.

* The council approved to begin the process of Chuck Knuff's title from utility manager to superintendent of public works.

* The council approved to begin the process of changing Mark Cassida's title to building inspector/code enforcer.

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