Du Quoin council waiting on union to outline legal layoff requirements

The Du Quoin city council Monday postponed the layoffs of water department employees Drew Porter and Cody Greenwood until the union which represents the two men advises the city on what it perceives to be the proper protocol. The newspaper understands Greenwood has signed a layoff agreement. Porter has not.

Mayor Rex Duncan said he had hoped to have the union's response before the meeting, but that did not happen. So, the matter will be carried over to either the Dec. 18 meeting or a special meeting.

Mayor Duncan said it is unfortunate that the city's fiscal responsibility requires the action and that the layoffs are required to bring parity to the water department budget.

Porter returned to work two weeks ago as negotiations continued to try and reach a settlement on what a labor arbitrator called his wrongful discharge in July 2013. That settlement is expected to be the difference between what he would have earned over the 17 months of his termination period as a city employee minus any other income that he had during that period, like unemployment benefits.

Greenwood was hired to fill the Porter position, but is expected to be discharged, as well, under the workforce reduction action.

Because of the Porter incident, the council wants to cover all the bases and make sure the layoffs are done properly.

Members of the understandably unhappy and frustrated Porter family attended the meeting. Drew's brother, Chase Porter, squared off with Mayor Duncan and the council. Duncan was civil and invited Porter to speak. He grilled the council on the city's spending, citing several capital equipment purchases. But, the council's response was that many of those purchases came from the street department budget which is different from the water department budget. He asked about the water department debt and why the city didn't see the problem coming, the point of it all being to find the money to save his brother's job. Duncan said the sewer plant construction and water line construction (approved during the Rednour administration) were necessary. He said the city was losing 35 percent of the water it was paying Rend Lake for, down to 5 percent since the construction. In the future the city will have to buy less water, thus saving money.

Porter finally took the shot he had been wanting to take. "It's time to get a new mayor and release (city administrator) Brad Myers."

Mayor Duncan said these personnel actions along with final approval of an 18 percent combined water and sewer rate increase should allow the city to be "barely in the black" during 2015--by about $35,000 citywide and $5,000 in the water budget.

He said any video gaming revenue would go into a contingency fund--a cushion.

He said next year's spending plan will require a great many careful considerations and asked for the support of the council and the department heads in continuing to keep the city historically sound.

In other action, the council approved the 2015 tax levy and budget for the city and the 2015 tax levy for the library.

The city approved the 2015 insurance program. The total cost of premiums reflects a 2.4 percent increase through the Gallagher Insurance Group of Chicago. City administrator Myers said he was proud of the city's safety record during the past year and said it will result in an $18,000 grant from the insurer to purchase more safety equipment for city employees. He said, "It (the safety record) is a 100 percent turnaround."

The fire department had good news for the council. It has landed a $26,000 grant to replace vintage 1970s "jaws of life" cutting and vehicle extraction tools.

Lastly, the council approved a plan that would place two properties under city ownership in something called the "Homsteading program." The two properties are located at 705 South Jefferson Street and 115 North Division Street. The program allows someone to purchase one of the properties for $100 from the city, based upon a seven-year agreement to rehabilitate the property. Once the spirit of the agreement is met, the city's trustee can turn the property over to the homeowner.

What the program accomplishes is to recycle the property and get it back into the neighborhood for use as a viable dwelling rather than to have the property torn down. Mayor Duncan said the city has received nearly 30 inquiries since the concept was published in a Du Quoin Evening Call article.