Council makes good on its no-raises vow

Unfolding more like a recap, rerun or return engagement, the October meeting of the Greencastle City Council was like a case of deja vu all over again.

After all, three ordinances were revisited and adopted on second and final readings. The tax abatement issue for Heartland Automotive (covered in a previous story) was not only initiated last month but went through a public hearing at the outset of Thursday’s meeting before final adoption, while a number of other issues were addressed for more than the first time.

Most prominent perhaps was City Council members making good on a promise to keep their own salaries frozen at previous levels with the seven-person panel adopting two city salary ordinances on second readings Thursday night.

By a 6-1 vote, the Council adopted Ordinance 2018-4, the city salary ordinance, on second reading, providing a two percent across-the-board pay raise for all fulltime city employees.

Following a motion by Tyler Wade, Council members Adam Cohen, Stacie Langdon, Mark Hammer, Gary Lemon and Dave Murray all voted aye, while Steve Fields voted nay in deference to the Parks Department losing a fulltime employee (although gaining 600 hours of part-time seasonal help).

However, on Ordinance 2018-5, which sets the salaries of elected Greencastle officials for 2019, the measure was adopted by a 5-2 margin. That’s the same outcome that first reading elicited at the September meeting when Hammer and Murray voted against the ordinance, being opposed to freezing Council salaries for another year. Meanwhile, Cohen, Langdon, Fields, Wade and Lemon cast aye votes to pass the ordinance with their salaries again frozen as they have been since at least the Nancy Michael administration.

Under that ordinance, the mayor and clerk-treasurer will each receive the same two percent raises granted all city employees for 2019. That will put the mayor’s salary at $61,200 and the clerk-treasurer’s compensation at $57,120, figures the City Council believes are more commensurate with their duties and abilities.

It had been a goal of the Council to see the mayor’s annual compensation top the $60,000 mark, and it will for the first time in 2019 with passage of the ordinance.

Meanwhile, Council salaries in the ordinance voted upon Thursday were sans raises.

“The Council salaries are adjusted back to the 2018 rate,” City Clerk-Treasurer Lynda Dunbar said of the amended version of Ordinance 2018-5 prior to it being read by title only on second reading.

Council opinions remained divided on members receiving a two percent raise -- or an additional $122 apiece for the seven councilors for 2019 -- which would have meant a nice, round annual salary of $5,000 each for their contributions to the city.

With the City Council not having taken a raise in at least a dozen years, some members adhered to the same reasoning espoused in increasing the mayor and clerk-treasurer salaries, namely to help attract good candidates on into the future. Others, meanwhile, felt the timing was wrong and did not like the message a Council pay hike might send to taxpayers or department heads who have been asked to tighten their belts and again do more with less next year.

Council President Cohen agreed with the latter notion during the September discussion, noting however, “For the past 15 years we’ve been saying the timing’s not right.”

The salary ordinances were just two of a number of items or issues that either resurfaced or were recapped during the 90-minute October City Council session.

The City Council also:

-- Adopted Ordinance 2018-3 on second reading, establishing appropriations and tax rates for 2019. Clerk-Treasurer Dunbar said after first reading in September that “the budgets are balanced,” adding, “we have as much revenue coming in as we’re spending out.”

-- Revisited the announcement that Republic Services is no longer accepting glass in the recyclables it picks up under the city trash and recycling contract. Mayor Bill Dory reiterated that glass no longer has any real value, and if fragments of it get in with plastic and paper, it can devalue those commodities.

“If you follow this,” Councilman Lemon said, “it’s not a local problem, it’s a national problem ... an international problem.”

“China’s not buying it any more,” City Attorney Laurie Hardwick interjected.

“India doesn’t want it either,” Lemon added.

The mayor said he will continue to work with Republic to see if there is any kind of alternative to throwing glass products into the trash bin and sending them on to the landfill.

-- Heard Mayor Dory reiterate that he will try to schedule a date for a community meeting on the proposed community center/YMCA project now that a new YMCA director is in place for the Wabash Valley Region. The YMCA Board will be meeting Oct. 25 in Terre Haute, he said, noting that YMCA officials probably need to be reminded that the project represents a 20-year commitment.

-- Heard Council President Cohen again note that the city should be examining possible legislation on motorized scooters like those that have invaded downtown Indianapolis and have branched out to Bloomington and other locales, particularly college communities. It is not beyond reason that scooter companies may eye DePauw, Cohen suggested. It was pointed out, however, that Greencastle ordinances are strict in regard to such things, making it illegal to ride skateboards on sidewalks in the downtown area, for example.

-- Heard City Police Chief Tom Sutherlin remind the public that Drug Take Back Day is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 27 from 9 a.m. to noon at the office entrance at Greencastle High School. Prescription drugs are collected -- no questions asked, no names or license numbers taken -- to be destroyed by the DEA in Indianapolis. The city project has collected close to 4,000 pounds of such drugs to date, Sutherlin said.

Meanwhile, the Council also approved requests for:

--Tap House 24 to close Indiana Street between Walnut and Washington for its farewell block party on Saturday, Oct. 20. The party is 6-10 pm. with the street to be closed 5-11 p.m.

“I hate it for the reason you’re doing it,” Councilor Cohen noted.

Tap House General Manager Chris Bebee replied, “it’s not that we’re closing, there will be new ownership. It won’t be the same as it is now.”

-- Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, 110 Larrabee St., for a 10 p.m.-2 a.m. noise waiver for its Oct. 27 party.

-- Main Street Greencastle for closing the Vine Street parking lot and adjacent streets for its Fall Carnival during the downtown trick-or-treat event from 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31.

The next regular meeting of the Greencastle City Council is set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8 at City Hall.