Pinckneyville Reachs Labor Agreement
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ The Pinckneyville City Council placed on file for public inspection Monday a contract with the Laborers Local No. 773 AFL-CIO, which represents all of the municipal union employees who are not represented by the Fraternal Order of Police union. The contract has not yet been approved by the laborers union.
The contract's effective dates are June 1, 2007 to May 31, 2010. Commissioner David Stone said he did not have a cost estimate on the back pay employees will receive if the union approves the agreement.
Employees will receive either retroactive raises or a longevity bonus, whichever is greater. The labor agreement provides for a 25-cent per hour raise for 2007 and a 50-cent per hour raise for 2008 and 2009. However, there are caps on the hourly rate employees can receive. If the retroactive pay is greater than the longevity bonus, employees will receive the back pay. Likewise, if the bonus is larger than the back pay, the employee would receive the bonus. The longevity bonus provides $500 for employees with 5 to 9 years of service, $1,500 for employees with 10 to 14 years of service and $2,500 for employees with 15 or more years of service.
City employees have been working without a contract since shortly after the current council took office.
In an effort to further cut fixed costs for the city, the council selected Welsch, Flatness and Lutz, Inc. to be their insurance broker. The city has been partially self-insured for the past seven years.
Ben Crowder, a representative of the new insurance broker said that he is in the process of getting final bids from traditional insurance carriers. He will not have a final recommendation on which policy will best serve the city until the final bids are received. "My recommendation may be to stay with the insurance you have now," Crowder told the council. "I'm confident we an help the city lower the total cost of benefits."
The city spent an average of $35,000 per month on health care this year. The current plan makes the city responsible for the first $35,000 in health costs for each employee plus an addition $15,000 for the first employee to exceed $15,000. The insurer paid only $12,000 last year.
Howard Danzig, of BAS, said that the city has had a particularly high claims year. He has solicited bids from 11 insurance companies on behalf of the city. Five declined to give bids, two offered quotes, ranging from $544,000 to $719,000. The remaining four gave tentative quotes of $326,000 to $620,000, but would not give final figures without underwriting.
The city's premium for the current year was $77,000. The contract expires June 1. Renewing the current plan would have raised the premium to $90,000 per year. Administrative costs were $8,900 this year and would not change.
In other business, the council:
Placed on file for public inspection a contract with Prairie State Energy to lease two parking spaces at the former Technicolor Universal Media Services Plant. The contract will allow Prairie State to hook into the building's utilities in order to teach three nine-week welding classes on the premises. However, Commissioner Auggie Kellerman said that he has heard that the city's insurance carrier will drop their policy if the lease is allowed. Mayor Joe Holder said that the contract will require Prairie State to pay any extra insurance costs. Kellerman also said that the $1,000 per month lease fee is not enough. "The gas bill in January was $15,000," he said. "We've put over half a million dollars into that building since we got it. I want to sell it and be done with it."
Approved spending $7,500 to have the engine of the fire truck used to respond to car accidents rebuilt. The engine seized and the vehicle had to be towed. Miller Repair will remove the engine and ship it to Jasper Engines to be rebuilt, then re-install it.
Heard from Commissioner David Stone that the gas regulator station near the Junior High School needs to be replaced. Cost for the replacement is estimated at $75,000 to $100,000. There are restricted funds in the gas surplus account that can be used for this project. Stone said he would also seek grants. The new regulator station will be built alongside the old one and then put into use so that there is no interruption in service.
Passed a resolution applying for a Community Development Assistance Program (CDAP) grant to do the design engineering on a project to upgrade the sewer system on the south side of town. HM&G engineer Jesse Maynard said that this is the second step in a three-step process. The first step was to investigate the sewer lines in that area. A $15,000 grant was received in 2007 to conduct the study. Maynard said reviewed the footage paid for by the 2007 planning grant, which includes 30 manholes. His recommendation is to replace 15 manholes and repair 15 manholes. There are also cracks, holes and infiltration problems with the sewer lines in that area. "There aren't any collapses that I've seen yet," Maynard said. "But, the camera could not get into some areas." Commissioner Sam Fulk asked if the sewer line that runs under Route 127 could be moved so that future repairs would not require tearing up the state road. Total cost for the design engineering would be $49,000, including $4,000 in administrative fees. Maynard said that Pinckneyville is eligible for the CDAP grant because more than 50 percent of the population in that area is low to moderate income. $25,068 of the $49,000 CDAP grant would benefit low to moderate income individuals. The third step in the process would be to apply for a $350,000 construction grant. The city would have to supply 25 percent matching funds on the construction grant.
Approved awarding bids to the low bidders for the 2009 motor fuel tax program. The low bidders were Illini Asphalt on bituminous material and seal coat aggregate, Bar Trucking on surface material CA-6 and Beelman Ready Mix for concrete. The contracts were placed on file at the previous meeting.