Chamois Maintenance Supervisor Danny Kirsch will continue to work for the city — for now — after accepting an offer from aldermen on Thursday to raise his pay from $21.54 an hour to $24.50 an hour. He had been offered another job and had some concerns about his continued work for the city of Chamois.
“His primary concerns are there is no sort of retirement and what happens after the election,” Mayor Elise Brochu said. “We can’t do anything about what happens at the election but it does feed into the fact that he doesn’t know who he is going to be working for in three weeks.”
“Yeah, but that comes with any job,” Alderman Marty Gerloff said. “You don’t always know who you are going to be working for.”
“Yeah, but we don’t usually have all five board seats open,” Brochu countered. “There is normally not this much uncertainty. I don’t know what we will do if we lose Danny. We’re not going to find anyone who knows everything and takes everything as seriously as he does and just handles it all. When they were out here looking at our well, they said the only reason it runs is because of Danny.”
Brochu noted that if Kirsch quits, they would have to find someone who was certified for the water and sewer system.
Initially, Kirsch did not attend the meeting and was not making demands for more money.
“He didn’t want us to feel like he was holding us for ransom,” Brochu said.
Aldermen and Kirsch decided to meet in closed session to discuss salary and benefits, and what the city may be able to offer.
“The problem is not whether he is worth the money,” Brochu said. “The problem is can we afford it?”
Brochu noted that a 4% salary increase would cost the city $200 per month. Ultimately, Kirsch agreed to a higher pay increase in lieu of a retirement plan so he could decide what percentage he wants to put in his retirement account.
In other business, aldermen approved the appointment of William Dixon to the seat vacated by Kenny Rost Jr. after accepting his resignation.
Negative comments by the city resident were listed as one of the main factors in Rost resigning from his position and also cited by Kirsch in reasons he was considering a new job.
“I don’t know how anyone can put up with the public,” Dixon said. “Like Kenny (Rost Jr.), he said, ‘I got fed up with people chasing me down.’”
“Well, and the thing about (Rost) is he was probably the easiest one of us to approach and that’s why everyone went to him to complain,” Alderman Rob Skaggs said.
* City resident Kim Slusser had recently purchased a house for her daughter. Slusser had put down a deposit and opened a water account but Kirsch was not available that day to turn the water on. Slusser turned the water on herself to check to see if there were any leaks and then shut the water back off.
“Tampering with a public utility is a felony,” Brochu said. “You can’t turn the power on yourself. You cannot turn the cable on yourself. Our ordinance is clear that if you turn on the water yourself instead of having a city employee do it, we charge you $1,000 and pull the meter until the amount is paid.”
“We were just checking to see if the water heater would leak,” Slusser explained. “The water was only on for five seconds.”
“I don’t really feel like the intent was to steal water in this case,” Skaggs said.
Aldermen agreed to not assess the $1,000 fine in this incident but there would be no forgiveness if something similar happened again.
* City Resident Elaine Cox approached aldermen, asking to set up a new contract after her water had been shut off for not making payments per the agreement she made with the city. Cox has a total water bill of $1,600.
“We signed an agreement and we fell short,” Cox said. “We have $600 we can give you today and then set up another payment plan.”
“We can’t keep doing this,” Gerloff said.
“$600 is $600,” Brochu said. “They didn’t break a board payment plan; this was their first one. They were in our first round of shut-offs.”
“I’m not going to keep doing this,” Gerloff said. “My answer is going to start being no. I pay my bills.”
Aldermen agreed unanimously to a payment plan of $600 down, plus $100 a month on top of the current water bill.
“And if they break this agreement, we’re not turning the water back on,” Alderman Matt Shockley said.
Skaggs requested a list of all the water customers who have shut-offs for the upcoming meetings.
* Brochu is still working through the paperwork needed to prosecute ticket and ordinance violations.
“Technically, (City Marshal) Riley Lewis has started but he can’t do anything without the paperwork,” Brochu said.
* Aldermen approved outstanding bills for the month totaling $11,532.13.
* The city of Chamois has the following ending balances in their accounts: cemetery ($10,173.17), city cemetery ($19,797.03), city park ($1,348.59). general fund ($53,584.44), meter deposits ($20,111.47), sewer ($45,546.25), sewer bond reserve ($26,567.40), sewer repair ($6,899.22), water ($138,814.73), and water repairs ($28,834.01).
* Chamois has five certificates of deposit totaling $12,066.90.
* The next regular meeting is scheduled for April 15 at 7 p.m.