Palestine City Council goes over premium pay plan
During a regular meeting of the Palestine City Council, members discussed premium pay for city employees and a plan to implement the decision.
According to Palestine Mayor Billy Shafer, the city will implement premium pay that will begin on Oct. 1, 2021 and last until Sept. 1, 2022, pending approval of the resolution by the City Council.
"Premium pay will begin on October 1, 2021 and go through September 1, 2022," said Shafer. "I went to the council meeting in Forrest City where they spoke with someone with the municipal league, however, I do not remember the exact deadline."
Board member Derrick Boileau stated that he had attended a Zoom meeting during which premium pay and other plans for the relief funds were discussed.
"You can't pay off debt with the funds," said Boileau. "That was my first question. Can we pay off debt? No. We cannot use it to pay employees holiday pay or vacation pay. It is only usable for working hours. Mrs. Valerie and I watched a Zoom meeting where one person asked if they could pave a street with it and the answer was no. There was a rural water department in Flippin who got it and they bought water meters with theirs and they have to pay it back because that wasn't allowed. I have a resolution from the water commission where they voted to pay it out over six months. We talked about letting my department handle the payment to the employees, but for auditing purposes and it becoming a bookkeeping nightmare, we decided to let Mrs. Valerie handle it."
(Continued from Page 1) "There is so much out there with this that I wish there was a way to get our volunteer firemen in on this," said board secretary and Palestine City Clerk Valerie Parker. "I am working on it right now and I have tried to find something but it is just not there."
According to Shafer, the rules for this funding could change at any time either allowing more people to be paid, or becoming more strict.
"One thing you said, Valerie, is that this could all change tomorrow," said Shafer. "If we adopt this resolution and they call her tomorrow and say that they are now going to include volunteer firemen, where does that leave us? It would be all wrong."
"You did it on the draw," said Boileau. "They would have to understand that they could not be included on this part of the funding."
"You can't re-disperse it after it has been set in stone," said board member Michelle Gardner.
"You can use that example for everything, 'well what if tomorrow they do this'," said Boileau. "You can't vote tonight, on what may happen tomorrow. All we can vote on tonight is what we know right now. The one thing that you do not get a head turn or a shoulder shrug about it premium pay. There was one water system manager that was adamant that they were going to pay it all at once. Now, they recommended that they not do that, but he was adamant about it and was calling telling people to pay the workers on his way out the door. If they are saying don't do that, we probably shouldn't do that. No reason to have them looking at us."
Shafer addressed the passing of board member Iva Lawson and asked that members of the board to remember the former board member's family during this time.
"I would just like to say that I know everyone has Mrs. Iva Lawson on their minds tonight and I just ask that we all remember her and her family during this time," said Shafer.