Overtime a Hot Button for Tamaroa
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Employee performance, conduct and overtime were the hot-button issues at a special meeting of the Tamaroa Board of Trustees Wednesday evening.
The board voted to curtail any unnecessary overtime. Mayor Curtis Stube will make the final decision on which jobs are worth of overtime and which aren't.
Trustee Lisa Haycraft was asked if she had imparted information about overtime discussed in executive session with employee Joyce Mazzarella. Haycraft said she not discussed anything from executive session, but did ask Mazzarella for her time sheets. Any conclusions she drew were her own.
At issue is eight hours of overtime for work during the Tamaroa Tractor Pull. Everyone else donated their time to the tractor pull. The board said Mazzarella will not be paid overtime for work at the tractor pull.
Employee Butch Hunter was asked to work smarter, not harder. As an example, the board said not to spend 12 hours mowing after he has already put in 35 hours that week. The mowing is not an emergency and can wait.
Hunter warned that some overtime will be necessary when the village begins reading meters for the 371 new customers from the CWPD 204 who became Tamaroa water customers this month.
Former Mayor Bill Place said that some of the funds borrowed for the water expansion have been allocated for touch readers. Those should make reading the additional meters easier.
The board discussed using contractors for repairs rather than employees, but determined that it is more cost effective to use employees.
Employees will also be asked to keep detailed records of the work they do. Different jobs are paid from different funds. Mowing the right-of-way along town roads falls under the Street Department and is paid from those funds. Mowing the lagoon falls under the Water/Sewer Department and is paid from those funds.
Place said that he authorized former Village Treasurer Doris Stein to write employees one single paycheck instead of multiple paychecks, as had been the practice. The record keeping is the same, employees just receive one check instead of many for their convenience. Treasurer Margaret Lee says that is still the case.
In other business, the board:
heard from Stube and Trustee Fred Schultz that they have narrowed the choices for a new dump truck two two models. A lighter truck for $63,000 and a heavier for $68,000. They are leaning towards the heavier truck, but must make sure the equipment already owned by the board will be compatible with it. Once a decision is made, the new truck should arrive in November. In the meantime, it is unlikely the old dump truck will pass inspection. The board agreed to look into renting one until the new one is received.
agreed to discuss customer courtesy and job performance with employees at the next meeting.