Aragon council breezes through make-up session
Boy Scouts from Troop 81 opened the latest Aragon City Council meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, and then the council got down to business quick in a make-up meeting to complete their April business.
Among the items of import for the council to vote on was approval of a new personnel policy, one they used to replace the last update to the rules governing those under the employ of the city completed in 2010. After voting unanimously to vacate the past policy, the newly updated language was given all yes votes as well.
Changes to the policy started in 2017 and a law firm familiar with employment law and the updates required by federal and state changes to rules over the years was completed in March, and changes were sought by the council to include them in the process of appeals by employees more than they were in the new draft, with some other details fixed as well.
The final copy of the new personnel policy was handed out during the work session held before the April 30 session, but council members had already gotten to see much of the work as revisions went back and forth through e-mail.
Along with the new employee policy, city council members also needed to approve rules and guidelines for the use of a new member of the Aragon Police Department, their K-9 officer Nero.
The city’s police department didn’t have a policy already in place for the Standard Operating Procedures for a K-9 dog and the officer handling the dog out in field in daily operations with the city. That policy was also given unanimous approval by the board, which allowed Nero to start work at the end of last week.
Early in the week after press time but before the May 9 edition came out, officers gathered for a ceremony at Aragon City Hall to mark Nero’s inclusion on the force and welcome the pup to active duty, along with memorializing other police dogs who have served in the line of duty.
It was one of the first ceremonies that Police Chief Brad Loyd helped organize in his new role. Approving Loyd officially as the new chief of the Aragon Police Department was also among the items council members voted unanimously to approve during their April session. The vote came just days after Loyd finished training classes for Chief School.
The council also approved two financial-related items brought up on the agenda. The Public Works department submitted spending proposals to complete work on a dump truck that would allow them to more easily swap out the back beds used to haul materials from one in regular use to another that will more efficiently haul away wood chips generated by the city’s chipper.
Council members gave the go-ahead with a unanimous yes vote for Public Works Superintendent Daniel Johnson to spend $ 24,125 on work on the dump truck to convert it for use with the new system, along with the specialized bed that will work with the city’s chipper to collect the wood chips and keep them from spilling into yards as it is hauled away.
Only one bidder — with information about the company not immediately available from the city as of press time and not mentioned in their approval on April 30 — submitted proposals for the work, but Johnson said since it is a specialized job competitive prices weren’t available in the local area.
Baldwin said spending on the modifications and new dump truck bed would have to come out of the city’s Special Assets Account, still being re-filled on a monthly basis by repayments back to the fund from Special Purpose, Local Options Sales Tax funds from the purchase of police equipment for a cruiser.
He asked the council also for another financerelated item involving SPLOST funds, which they also approved. Baldwin said he went back and reviewed a number of purchases the city made with general funds over the past years he believed should have qualified for payment with SPLOST money.
“We’ve got some wiggle room within the SPLOST to move things around because of purchases we’re not going to make or money earmarked for items we can’t spend on, but it is likely going to be nowhere near going over the total amount they asked for a number of years ago,” Baldwin said.
He added that since the city didn’t need to purchase new storm sirens and wouldn’t be using blighted property funds or those set aside for the now disbanded Aragon Fire Department, the city has more SPLOST money available to use than previously anticipated.
The city is already working to generate a list for the next SPLOST, which Baldwin said he expected to be on the midterm ballot for another extension, but that hasn’t been set in stone. Additionally, the city will still need to generate a wish list of items they’d like to use SPLOST dollars to purchase or build in the coming years. Baldwin said there’s “plenty of time to adjust the items on our list” but that it was too soon to provide a a comprehensive tally of what they’d like to request for the SPLOST extension.
One final item the city fixed for the coming fiscal year’s budget will make a difference for city workers who are hoping to see more on their paychecks in coming years.
Instead of providing a 2.5 percent bump annually to employees in November, Aragon’s employees will in FY 2019 get their raises earlier in the year during the summer instead of midway through the year when the pay increases were first put into place following the economic downturn.
“The question was brought up as to why we were doing the raises in November, and no one could come up with a good reason why,” he said.
Baldwin said now raises will be given out with the start of a fiscal year in July with annual bumps in pay, and this year the city agreed to give employees a 5-percent bump with the council’s approval.
The increase also applies to what those starting out in city jobs will make as well in an effort to keep the city competitive with surrounding municipalities, Baldwin said.
Also approved by the council was a second and final reading to amendments to the new tethering ordinance to allow leads, and the go-ahead for the city to submit half of a $3,750 payment for the Aragon BBQ fireworks show, and to send off paperwork affirming for another year that the City of Aragon is a City of Ethics within the Georgia Municipal Association.