The Crossville city council has a very
busy Tuesday night with a work session, a special called beer board
and a special called meeting to discuss hiring a new city manager.
The meetings get underway February 7 at 5 PM with
the work session and at 6 PM the special called beer board will deal
with allegations of underage sales by three Crossville beer licensees
and the special called council meeting to possibly move forward with
hiring a new city manager after interviews that took place January 30
and 31. The meetings will take place a city hall.
Other items on the work session agenda
include the rehiring on a previous retiree and the effect on
insurance and retirement benefits. Some questions have cropped up
with the rehiring of David Beaty as regular police chief after he
took the early retirement buyout from the position 2 years ago. The
agenda item is listed as “discussion on rehire of retired employees
in a full time status and the effects on the Tennessee Consolidated
Retirement System." Beaty, along with a number of other city
employees received a lump sum payment of 6 months of salary and
continued health insurance at the time they left. It was not
expected any of those employees would return to work for the city at
the time they left.
Crossville Police Chief David Beaty
One question relates to the healthcare
benefits received by the retirees that included a city paid insurance
benefit until age 65 and Medicare eligibility. A 2015 spread sheet from the finance department shows that Beaty had been recieving medical, dental and vision insurance at a total cost of $521.11 a month.
City attorney Will
Ridley gave an opinion at the request of former interim city manager
Steve Hill that rehired retirees would be eligible to receive the
insurance benefit after they left the city's employment after being
rehired. Ridley's opinion states that by adopting the retirement
plan the city created a contractual obligation to provide the
benefit. Ridley wrote, “It is my opinion that Mr. David Beaty will
be entitled to continue to receive the bridge insurance at the time
of his next separation from the city employment or until he becomes
Medicare eligible.”
According to Human Resources Manager
Leah Crockett, no other employee hired at the current time would be
eligible to continue health insurance after separation. It is also
unclear if a rehired retiree employee would keep the bridge insurance
if they were fired for cause.
Council will discuss the proposed sale
of part of the city's Chestnut Hill landfill property to a non-profit
group for use as the proposed Shooting Sports Park. Should the sale
of the property be approved by council at their February regular
meeting, the sale would have to be advertised for 30 days under a
provision of the city Charter. The project has been in the works for
almost two years and a large part of the funding will come from TWRA.
With changes approved by the Tennessee
General Assembly last year on public records law, the council will
consider an update to the related ordinance and a new model policy
for access to public records. According to the agenda information
the new policy is not substantially different from the city's current
policy and ordinance. The new policy requires a report annually to
the Council regarding compliance and it requires review every two
years. Other small changes including allowing for the use of a
requestor provided storage device for electronic records, eliminating
any charges that total less than $5.00, and changes in the form for
requesting records.
Link to new public records policy (Link downloads a PDF file)
Operation of the city's new corporate
hanger at Crossville Memorial Airport will also be up for discussion
on the work session agenda including a fee schedule, utilities and
other operational items. A final change order will also be discussed
returning some $13,000 to the city. The hanger has now been turned
over to the city's control.
Other items for discussion include:
- geotechnical studies to be preformed on the proposed location to be used for the site development grant to construct a ready for construction pad;
- outside city limits sewer connections;
- appointment of council member Pamala Harris to the Lake Commission;
- and a training for council members on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
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