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The Babbitt city council held a special meeting on April 23 to discuss the annexation of the Hideaway property and filling the clerk/treasurer position. Council member Joe White was absent.
Deputy Clerk-Treasurer Sara Powell told the council that in a previous meeting, the council agreed to cover any costs for hooking up the Hideaway to city water and sewer not covered by an IRRRB grant.
She said she wanted to clarify that the city would spend economic development authority monies to make up any shortfalls.
“If that’s what was in the minutes,” said mayor Andrea Zupancich.
Powell also said the Hideaway will have to pay for the costs to the curb stop and the city is responsible from the curb stop to the property line and said there needs to be a development agreement.
Powell said the city attorney will need to put the agreement together.
The council then turned to the clerk/treasurer job description.
Council member Duane Lossing said he wanted to change the job to a salary position without overtime.
“Talking with other communities this is almost always a salary position that’s how they can help cut down on the overtime,” said Lossing. “Actually, in most communities, all the supervisory positions are salaried positions. We are a little bit different than most communities when it comes to that.”
Powell said the current position is salaried but overtime is paid.
“We’ve been paying overtime the whole time,” said Lossing.
In 2024, there were over 100 hours of overtime paid to the clerk. However, election years were cited as causing additional overtime.
Council member Jim Lassi said the confusion may be over the job description and contract being different on the subject of overtime.
Lossing said now is the time to make the change to limit the overtime cost to the city.
Council member John Fitzpatrick said the higher wage the city pays should cover the overtime.
The council looked at other cities of a similar size to see how they handle the same position.
Fitzpatrick suggested the city word an employee contract to allow overtime during an election year.
Former clerk Elaine Postudensek, who spoke from the audience, said she would use flex time during elections.
Lossing suggested limiting the number of hours the office is open to the public. “That gives the option time to work and stay focused on important things,” said Lossing.
On overtime, he said the city already compensates for overtime by paying $85,000 a year.
“In 2022, our clerk treasurer, we always talk about how much more an administrator would cost us. We paid our clerk treasurer basically the same, just under what most of these communities are paying for an administrator,” said Lossing, citing a figure of $92,000. Lossing said he wants to be sure the wage is relative to experience and education.
“Where in your workplace do you go, and you get to make the same amount with no or little or only a few years’ experience as someone that’s been here for 20 or 30 years? That’s crazy,” said Lossing.
Lossing also said while he understands the concerns about the term administrator, that may be the right direction to go.
“What I’ve heard when I brought the word administrator up is we don’t need anybody telling our supervisors what to do,” said Lossing. “I don’t necessarily say we should have an administrator, but we need somebody in charge.”
“One of the things that I would like to see that person do more is be more hands-on with the supervisors of our departments, not micromanaging them, but just knowing where they are, what they’re doing, and following up. Just a little bit more accountability of what’s going on in our community. And when you go door to door and you talk to your constituents, that’s what you hear.”
Lassi disagreed. “I’ll tell you now, I’m absolutely 100% opposed to a city administrative per se. I like the clerk-treasurer system.”
Lassi said department heads should run their department.
“Who knows better what a department needs than the department supervisor? So rather than have the city clerk directing, the city clerk should be sort of like facilitating or coordinating the efforts.”
Lassi said the clerk-treasurer has enough to do already.
“Let the departments run their show,” said Lassi.
Fitzpatrick said the department heads need to communicate with the clerk-treasurer.
Powell said cities that have an administrator also have a finance director. “We would need a fourth body,” said Powell.
A motion to change the wording in the job description from supervise to coordinate department heads passed with Lossing voting no.
Powell asked for vacancy compensation of $5 an hour for herself and $3 an hour for Kirsten Traut. She said there is money in the budget.
“The weight of the world is on our shoulders…with a little bit of encouragement and a little bit of monetary compensation, we can withstand as long as we need to,” said Powell.
The council approved, with Zupancich abstaining since Traut is her daughter.
Thecouncilalso approved spending $20,000 for Abdo Consulting to complete bank reconciliations from January 2024 to today.
Powell said she is looking into the city’s bond agreement where there could be payments to the city for the previous clerk “failing to perform duties or obligations of his or her positions as required or prescribed by law.” This could include “reasonable auditing and accounting costs.”
