Portage council delays action on salary proposal
Joyce Russell joyce.russell@nwi.com, (219) 762-1397, ext. 2222
Jan 6, 2016
NWI Times
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/portage-council-delays-action-on-salary-proposal/article_91b2b6ad-ec51-59b2-bb3f-ab6265470834.html
PORTAGE — In its first meeting of the new year, the Portage City Council split on a vote to add salaries for two new city employees.
The 4-3 vote to suspend the second reading of the ordinance and act on the changes Tuesday night caused action to be delayed.
Mayor James Snyder, after criticizing council members who voted against the suspension, called for a special meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday to take final action on the ordinance.
The proposed amendment would add a salary range of $92,000 to $112,000 for the new position of director of economic development. Most of the salary would be paid with Redevelopment Commission funds and about one-third would be funded through the Utility Services Board.
The commission last month approved Snyder's proposal to no longer fund the Portage Economic Development Corp., but to instead to fund a city economic development position.
Also added to the payroll is an administrative assistant to serve both the economic development director and the director of administration.
Director of Administration Joe Calhoun said Wednesday that position will pay a salary of $35,000 in 2016, split between the RDC and Utility Services Board. He added that the proposed ordinance will be revised by Saturday's meeting to reflect that salary.
The proposal also changed funding for the administrative assistant to the mayor position. Presently that position's is paid entirely through the general fund.
Calhoun said the 2016 salary for that position will be $42,500, again split between the general fund and Utility Services Board, for duties as administrative assistant (mayor) through the general fund and board president administrative assistant through the utility board.
Calhoun said the Utility Services Board already has approved its budget with the salaries.
New council members Scott Williams and Collin Czilli along with member Sue Lynch voted against moving the ordinance forward on a single reading.
Czilli said he wanted more review of the ordinance before voting.
"We just got it. We weren't given a lot of time to review the proposal," said Williams, adding he was concerned about the proposal's impact on the budget.
"The mayor's office is always open," Snyder shot back about the concerns, saying the proposal was turned into the council members by deadline, but neither he nor his administrators had received a single call with questions about the proposal.
Snyder said the changes will not have an impact on the budget, adding, "Had we had a phone call, we could have answered that."
Snyder said he wanted action on the proposal by the end of the week.
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