“I want to address some serious issues in here that I think we have to address,” Vice Mayor Bob Barnas said.

During the Aug. 9 commission meeting, discussion centered on compensatory time, flex time, vacation time and merit pay.  The discussion follows a recent communication to the City of High Springs by the United States Department of Labor to pay the city’s former planner for unpaid compensatory and flex time.

Following the Department of Labor’s warning of a full-scale investigation, Barnas said City staff has improved their efforts within the last week to keep up with compensatory time.

Currently, employees earn vacation time based on years of service to the City. Employees with more than 20 years with High Springs earn 200 hours per year, while hours earned by employees with fewer than 20 years is calculated based on the years. Most employees are not allowed to accrue in excess of 240 hours, but department directors may accrue up to 320 hours.

Barnas suggested capping vacation time at 240 hours for department heads and 200 hours for all other employees.

Commissioner Sue Weller cautioned Barnas about the process of cutting vacation time, stating employees may feel like they’ve earned the right to the time they have already accumulated.

“I feel department heads should have better benefits,” Weller said, referring to the higher cap on hours. “Right now, that’s all they have that’s more than the employees they supervise.”

Fire Chief Bruce Gillingham suggested the City not cap the total hours, but limit the amount of carry-over hours to 40 a year. He also added that the carry-over deadline should be set for anniversary year instead of fiscal year so that City employees are staggered instead of fighting for vacation at the same time.

If the City decides to cut vacation time, the Commission would allow employees a year to use any time accumulated over the new set amount.

“Every city across the country is saying we can’t afford these things,” Barnas said. “If you ask me to vote on this now, I’m cutting everything.”

“I want to come up with something that truly gives someone a merit raise,” Barnas said.

City Manager Jeri Langman said before the City can hand out merit bonuses, there needs to be a uniform description of each job. She said staff is currently working on putting these together.

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Email awilliamson@alachuatoday.com

HIGH SPRINGS – The City of High Springs convened in a shade meeting on Aug. 2 to discuss an ongoing lawsuit with former city planner Christian Popoli.  In July, the City was notified by the United States Department of Labor (DOL) that the department had ruled in Popoli’s favor concerning his claim to overtime pay owed him by the City.

Initially, the DOL ruled that Popoli was due $2,057 for unpaid compensation and flex time. However, after the former city planner contested the hours, the DOL increased the amount to $8,209.

“In order to avoid a full investigation, which would be very detailed for all employees, the investigator is requesting that we pay for the uncompensated time immediately,” High Springs City Manager Jeri Langman wrote in an email to commissioners.

In addition to Popoli’s unpaid wages, the investigator suggested the City pay back wages or compensation time to current salaried employees or past employees as far back as two and a half years if they have earned it.

According to Langman, the decision will affect the following employees: Jenny Parham, Helen McIver, Bruce Gillingham, John Morrison, Steve Holley and Jeri Langman, as well as former employees James Drumm, Verne Riggal, James Troiano and William Benck.

For current employees, she recommended paying each employee on a bi-weekly basis so the City does not accumulate an outstanding balance year’s end.

In order to cover the costs associated with the DOL’s finding, the City’s contingency fund for this fiscal year will be affected, as well as departmental budgets in the upcoming fiscal year budget.

Due to the ongoing litigation, the city commission has not discussed this issue during an open public meeting.

However, in an email, Commissioner Linda Gestrin advised Langman to seek a second opinion from an attorney before any direction is given regarding paying employees.

City Clerk Jenny Parham responded to Gestrin’s inquiry by stating Langman intended to contact an employment attorney and inform the commission prior to paying the compensation time.

As of Aug. 8, Popoli still had not received the money.  Based on the shade meeting, Popoli said he believes the City will try to fight the ruling.

“I’m not shocked,” he said. “But I rather hoped that once the DOL made the recommendation that they [the City] would follow through.”

In lieu of suing the City, Popoli had earlier requested a $147,000 severance package. The City denied his request.

After working for the City of High Springs for six years, Popoli was laid off, with his salary savings earmarked to fund a newly created city engineer position.  Popoli applied for the job, but during an April 12 commission meeting Mayor Dean Davis raised doubts about Popoli’s qualifications as a city engineer.

Popoli expects that his attorney Linda Chapman will be filing a lawsuit against the City in the coming weeks.

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Email awilliamson@alachuatoday.com

Pitt County North Carolina takes Babe Ruth World Series Championship

ALACHUA – After a long road to the end, a team from Pitt County, North Carolina took the championship in the 2012 12U Babe Ruth Softball World Series that wrapped up Wednesday evening.  After a big 16-3 win against Marshall County, Tennessee Tuesday evening, Pitt County rode the wave into the championship games.  Having been dealt their only loss by Lodi, California in a Monday evening game, Pitt County could not afford another loss.  And it was the undefeated girls from Lodi who Pitt County would face off against in the Championship games.

Pitt County pulled out a 6-5 win in the 11:30 a.m. game against Lodi Wednesday.  With both teams having suffered a loss to each other, the two battled it out in a winner-take-all game Wednesday afternoon.  And the winner was the Pitt County team, which knocked in a 6-0 shutout to clinch the championship title.

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editor@alachuatoday.com

During the July 31 public hearing, the Commission initially passed Ordinance 2012-13, proposing a charter amendment to limit the borrowing authority to $2 million, although the public hearing notice had been advertised with a $1 million limit.  After closing out the public hearing, the Commission then voted to change the proposed charter amendment again to reduce the “municipal borrowing” authority amount from $2 million to $1 million.

That measure passed 3-2 with Commissioners Sue Weller and Scott Jamison opposing.  Prior to the re-vote, former High Springs City Attorney Thomas Depeter informed the commission that passing the reconsideration violated the law, indicating that the ordinance would have to be advertised again to give notice to the public and that a subsequent public hearing would be necessary.

The commission voted 3-2, with Commissioners Scott Jamison and Sue Weller opposing and Mayor Dean Davis, Vice Mayor Bob Barnas and Commissioner Linda Gestrin in favor, to suspend the rules and take up the matter immediately.

“It has been brought to my attention that we may also have a procedural issue with the passing of ordinance 2012-13 by its amendment,” City Attorney Ray Ivey said later in the meeting regarding the amended ordinance.

He stated if any substantial change was made to an ordinance then the process must start anew and be advertised again. According to Ivey, the increase from $1 million to $2 million could be considered a substantial change.

“My recommendation, rather than analyze it and second guess ourselves, is just redo it,” Ivey said. “You start the process over.”

In order to have adequate time to get the ordinance on the ballot for the November election, the ordinance had to be acted upon at the July 31 meeting. However, Ivey said that returning to the original ordinance still violated the law.

Despite the warning, Vice-Mayor Bob Barnas made a motion to reconsider the ordinance and return it to its advertised language. With the rules suspended, the motion passed.

In November, barring any injunctions against the ordinance, High Springs residents will have an opportunity to vote on whether or not to limit the Commission’s borrowing authority to $1 million or less.

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Email awilliamson@alachuatoday.com