Goodrich – The village council voted 5-0 at Monday night’s meeting to freeze wages and benefits for three DPW (Department of Public Works) workers and six administrative staff.
Although there was some friction between councilmembers David Lucik and Patricia Wartella, who are both on the personnel committee, each made a proposal to freeze wages and benefits.
When Lucik was asked by President Ed York to give the personnel committee report, Lucik’s opening remarks were about Wartella’s refusal to meet with him. For that reason, he suggested the council appoint someone else who has a deeper interest in participating on the committee. Wartella asked President York if she could explain why she refused to meet with Lucik.
‘After having a telephone conversation with Mr. Lucik and explaining what my recommendations might include, he stated that there are four of us and one of you, and you do not have a chance. With that said, I decided to work on my own research,? said Wartella.
The other proposal by Wartella was to cut three DPW workers? work week by eight hours, which she also presented to the council in a written report. However, York felt the proposal needed to be given to the council before the meeting for their perusal and lacked enough experience and research. ‘You have zero experience when it comes to personnel and you have not met with Pete Morey to discuss this proposal,? said York.
Wartella defended his accusation by explaining her full-time job limits her ability to have the luxury of spending time in the village administrative office or garage to do all of the research that is sometimes necessary.
‘What difference does it make if I don’t understand how the DPW works?? asked Wartella. ‘Obviously, I am not going to have the expertise to know everything there is to know about the DPW. However, I do know the situation with our economy right now and we have to buckle up and cut expenditures. If you have a company and the company is losing money, are you going to keep those 10 employees even though you are going to lose money? They know they will have to start cutting. If we are forced to make our DPW workers part-time, then it will all come down to the DPW working with better management,? said Wartella.
Greg Tankersley, village resident, was pleased with the action the village council took to freeze wages and benefits.
‘Patty Wartella’s suggestion to cut the DPW workers to part-time will depend on the 2008-09 budget Jakki Sidge is working on right now, which will be presented at a village council meeting in June,? he said.
‘Obviously if the 2008-09 budget is submitted with a deficit, then we will have to look at ways to cut it.?