Indianola city officials decided during its most recent session that they should know who those lead people are that are working sideline gigs.
Beginning Monday night and moving forward, any department head or assistant for the City of Indianola must obtain board approval before taking on a second job.
Alderman Gary Fratesi introduced a motion during the meeting on Monday night that will effectively put that decision in the hand of the city lawmakers.
"I make the motion that the board has to approve the department heads and assistant department heads any second jobs,"
Mayor Steve Rosenthal said, "I don't have a problem with it. I'd rather not have that responsibility." The motion raised some concern.
Fratesi said, "All we want to do is know about it, we don't want to get blindsided when so-and-so is not at the job because she's doing another job,"
He alluded to an issue with a former employee. He then asserted, "We catch the heat when it goes south."
Alderman Ruben Woods said, "The problem we had the last time was the hours of the second job. If he's working 8 to 5, the second job can't be in that time period."
The discussion raised a couple of questions from Municipal Court Clerk Teresa Nolden. She first wanted to know if the new ruling only applied to the fire and police departments’ heads. However, Fratesi clarified that he meant all departments.
She then asked, "So, do you think it's right for y'all to say we can have a second job when this job is not paying enough money to support the family?"
Fratesi explained. "Everybody that's already got one is grandfathered and anybody else just come before the board and it's five of us to decide and nobody is going to be hard," said Fratesi.
Alderman Sam Brock stated that Fratesi's motion should only apply to those department heads who are on 24-hour call and Fratesi asserted that he was simply trying to be fair and uniform across the board.
Fratesi said that he doesn't have a problem with employees working other jobs as long as it does not interfere with their work for the city. The motion passed on a unanimous vote.
In other business,
A request by City Clerk Kanelia Williams to change the Blue Cross Blue Shield waiting period for new employees' insurance coverage from 90 days to 30 days failed on a 2-3 vote with aldermen Fratesi, Brock and Darrell Simpson voting no.
"I talked to the insurance representative about if it was a fee or anything to change this and why was it 90 days and he really couldn't tell me why it was 90 days; but he said it was no fee to change that waiting period to 30 days," Williams said.
Simpson contended that the 90-day probationary period for employees and the 90-day waiting period for insurance coverage mirrored each other.
He also alluded to the city having to pay full monthly premiums for severed employees who may not have worked a full final month and may not have been immediately removed from the insurance roll. However, Williams assured him that the matter would be handled efficiently and expeditiously.
Also,
Surveillance cameras in the downtown area and along highways U.S. 82 and U.S. 49 could be a future possibility. Fratesi called for a motion to initiate the process of seeking out a grant or other possible funding sources for the equipment.
He mentioned issues with speeding and drag racing in certain areas and maintained that cameras would give them an advantage to solve the problem. Alderman Marvin Elder suggested having experts come in to make recommendations on the best possible locations for the equipment. They briefly discussed their options with regard to the use of the cameras.
On a successful 4-1 vote, the aldermen made two changes to the current emergency proclamation; however, eliminating the facemasks restrictions was not one of those changes.
The social gathering limit for indoor events was raised to 40 and the outside activity count was raised to 100. Although Simpson voted yes he added a comment. "I vote yes, but I really don't like the mask thing," he said.
Fratesi was the holdout vote and again stated his reason to be that he was against continuing with the mask mandate and added that the restriction is not being enforced.
The city fathers also approved the acceptance of an application from Supervalu Holdings, Incorporated for a tax exemption and a resolution granting exemption from ad valorem taxes due on the purchase of $900,000 worth of new equipment.
Of the resolution, Rosenthal said, "This is basically saying that if the state approves it, then we are approving the resolution to grant it."
Alderman Marvin Elder initiated questioning towards Hough-Dement Shelter Manager Nancy Amaro about some of the day-to-day practices at the animal shelter; however, the dialogue was eventually shut down and moved to executive session.
But, not before Elder queried her about certain telephone procedures and stated, "The reason I'm asking these questions because, we only went to the police department because the dispatcher getting the calls. They're calling the shelter—no answer. They're calling your phone. Check that, because they got to call the police department. Police department now got to go do animal shelter work because no response," Elder said.
He also questioned if she was completing incident reports on happenings at the shelter and Amaro indicated that she was not. Elder attempted to reassure, "Not getting on you about anything, this just to protect you for you to help protect the city from any liability." He proceeded to ask about a helper at the shelter, but that’s when Rosenthal interrupted and declared the discussion to be personnel related.
Additionally,
A survey on the need for speed bumps along a stretch of B.B. King Road between Wiggins Road and U.S. Highway 49 is complete and Interim Police Chief Earnest Gilson said based on the number of traffic stops during a select time, speed bumps are a recommended solution.
Some major intersections within the city may soon get a new look with a recommendation from Fratesi to install striping to properly identify turning lanes and drive lanes. "Every major intersection needs to have stripes, where all the red lights are at the very least," Fratesi said.
He insisted that the public works department should be able to complete the task and suggested that Rosenthal and public works come up with a plan and a date to get it done.
A request to modify the city's ordinances regarding meeting times failed for lack of a second. Williams proposed the change and listed several surrounding municipalities that she had contacted about their meeting times and all were being held earlier than Indianola. So, she suggested that the time be changed from 7:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., but only Woods stated that he was for the change.
