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Parkersburg City Council to receive budget Tuesday

Agenda includes salary ordinances, floodwall item

PARKERSBURG — The 2019-20 budget process will get under way Tuesday when Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce presents his proposed spending plan to City Council.

During its regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, council will also consider budget revisions requested by the administration for salary adjustments and a required inspection of the floodwall.

Joyce declined Friday to release specifics about the budget plan until council members receive the document during their regular meeting Tuesday. But it is expected to include his proposal for implementing some of the recommendations from a recent salary survey.

Council members earlier this month passed a non-binding resolution recommending a 3.2 percent pay increase for all employees except elected officials, department heads and police. Adding police sparked debate on the resolution, which passed 6-3.

Those who wanted to exclude the Police Department pointed to the $2.53-an-hour raise officers received last fall. Those wanting the new raise to cover police argued the recent increase put them on the same level as other departments and they did not want them to lag behind again.

Council Vice President Zach Stanley said budget hearings are scheduled to begin March 7 with the budgets for departments under Public Works and wrap up with potential amendments on March 18. Between those sessions will be two to three additional hearings, plus a public hearing during the March 12 council meeting.

The salary survey was the genesis of two ordinances on final reading on Tuesday’s agenda.

The first would establish new salary tables that start at the current pay rate for each job classification. Joyce has said this will make it easier to give raises without reclassifying jobs.

That change will not require any additional funds, but the second ordinance — changing the classifications of medium equipment operator in the sanitation, street and street cleaning departments; heavy equipment operator; floodwall foreman; public works foreman II; and assistant city engineer — does.

Council is being asked Tuesday to approve budget revisions to fund those changes “through savings resulting from year-to-date vacancies in certain positions,” Finance Director Eric Jiles said. The revisions total $32,805.34 and affect the general, sanitation and Memorial Bridge funds.

A revision of $15,262 is being sought to fund a seepage and slope stability study to maintain certification of the floodwall by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Joyce said this is one of six items that must be completed by July to complete a process that began in 2013.

“It’s a clear path to certification and accreditation with FEMA,” he said, noting the certification is needed to show that areas protected by the floodwall are not required to carry flood insurance.

Joyce said he and Public Works Director Everett Shears were first notified about the situation by FEMA at the end of January and he did not give an explanation for why the process, which began before he became mayor, had not been followed up on before then.

Other requirements include a topographic survey that will be done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a statement of compliance for permits pertaining to the floodwall, an update of the operation and maintenance manual for the floodwall and provision of an emergency action plan, none of which will require additional funding. Also on tap is an inspection of pipes traveling underneath the floodwall, for which funding has already been allocated and a purchase order is pending, and closures of the floodwall gates at 34th and 19th streets this spring.

The latter items should also meet the last remaining requirements to make the floodwall eligible for federal rehabilitation funds, Joyce said.

The other ordinance on final reading would allow Public Works employees who are being paid at a training rate to start earning their full salary — an additional $1 an hour — upon receiving their commercial driver’s license instead of completing a six-month probationary period.

Also on the agenda:

* A resolution reappointing Warren Bigley, Greg Boso, Roger Brown and Mike Vierheller to the Board of Zoning Appeals.

* A resolution allowing the temporary vending of beer and/or wine in downtown Parkersburg for the Point Park Concert Series, Bicentennial Park Concert Series, Taste of Parkersburg, Riverfest and Artoberfest events.

* The first reading of an ordinance zoning 18 recently annexed properties in the 19th and 20th Avenue and Willoughby Drive areas as R2 residential.

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In Brief

Tuesday’s Parkersburg City Council meetings

* 5:30 p.m. — Urban Renewal Authority, council chambers, second floor, Municipal Building

* 7:30 — City Council, council chambers

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