City Council to hold special called meeting and work session Tuesday June 6 on budget and other topics

The Crossville city council will hold a special called meeting followed by a work session on Tuesday June 6 starting at 5 PM. Both meetings will be held in the third floor conference room.

Items on the special called meeting agenda include the first reading in title only of the city's 2017-18 fiscal year budget and the tax rate. No increase in the tax rate has been proposed for city taxpayers. The latest version of the budget stands at $1.4 million in the red but additional changes are expected before the third and final reading of the budget is approved.

Council will consider a year end budget amendment to cover some budget lines that have gone over their budgeted amounts. The amendment would add $19,050 to administrative line items and $82,000 to the state street aid budget.

As part of the work on the 17-18 budget, the council discussed paying off some of the city's short tem loans using money from the general fund balance. On the called agenda is possible action on paying off two loans of $728,000 for paving and $807,000 for the purchase of police cars. If approved, the action would reduce debt service payments in the upcoming budget year.

Other items on the called meeting agenda include an amendment to the city's municipal code concerning tree removal of dead or dying trees in a timely manner when they create a hazard. Council will also consider moving additional funds to First Bank in Crossville, a contract for the urban and community forestry program and the purchase of a used tandem fifth wheel.

The regular monthly work session for the council is set to start at 5:15 PM.

Included in the meeting is a presentation by the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System to explain new programs they have available that they did not have when Crossville left the program several years ago.

Members of Crossville city council: L-R

J.H. Graham, Danny Wyatt, Mayor James Mayberry

Pamala Harris and Scot Shanks.

Council will consider the Request for Proposals that have been received for a performing a special census in the city limits. The recommended proposal has most recently done a special census for the town of Farragut.

Councilman Danny Wyatt has several items on the agenda that he would like to discuss including forming a committee to consider changes to the city charter, the purchase of the remaining handle mill property next to the Art Circle Public Library and the establishment of a sports recruitment committee to bring in sporting events to Crossville and Cumberland County. Wyatt also plans to discuss an evaluation program for new city manager Greg Wood at the conclusion of his first 6 months in office at the start of September.

Jim Young Reporter sponsored by

PARK PLACE MOTORS.

Council member Pamala Harris has asked for a discussion of striping Main Street after TDOT advised they would not repave that portion of the road until 2020.

Other items for discussion include a number of grant programs including a PetSafe grant for dog park equipment, a Narcan grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield, an Agriculture enhancement grant for additional trees and an ordinance on extending city sewer to developed subdivisions outside the city limits.

Council will set an alternate date for the July work session as the regular date falls on Independence day. Council will conclude the work session with work on the new fiscal year budget.   

Tuesday Council agenda looks at rehiring retirees, solid waste contract and a report on downtown sidewalks

The April Crossville city council meeting is set for Tuesday April 11 and includes mostly items the council has discussed before.

One item not on the agenda for the first time in several weeks is the Shooting Sports Park and the sale of the land to the nonprofit is scheduled to be closed prior to this meeting.  This will also be the first real council meeting for new city manager Greg Wood who started one week before the last meeting.

New Crossville city manager Greg Wood

The Council's regular meeting starts at 6 PM and will be preceded by the monthly audit committee meeting at 5:20 PM and a brief public hearing on the annexation plan of services for two new annexations at 2496 Lantana Rd and 99 Grandview Dr in addition to a report on annexation progress for Orange Circle at 5:50 PM. The council also meets as the Solicitation Board at 5:55 PM to consider an application from the Crossville Lions Club for their annual white cane project.

Council meetings are held at city hall and open to the public.

The regular agenda includes possible action on the rehiring of retirees policy that council has been discussing for some time now. Councilman Danny Wyatt had requested some additional information on the cost and savings of the previous early retirement program. The spread sheet prepared by Leah Crockett shows an amount of annual savings totaling $282,708 for the current year looking at how much the retirees would be receiving compared to the cost of their current replacements.

The total amount of the 6 months of salary buyout for the 18 employees who took early retirement was $446,275 so it appears the city has already made back its investment in the 28 months since the program was offered.

The issues that have cropped up with the rehiring of retirees include that they must be returned to the more expensive Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System and the 6 month salary buyout and other regular retirement incentives they received. Discussion by council has included whether the buyout payment should be paid back if a previous retiree return to work.

New city manager Greg Wood has recommended that such employees not be rehired unless there were “extraordinary circumstances.”

As the deadline nears for a decision on renewal of the city solid waste collection contract with Cumberland Waste Disposal the city has been looking at its options. One option is the city's purchase of a leaf vacuum truck to allow the street department to do some or all of the leaf pickup. Such a truck is estimated to cost around $40,000.

During last weeks council work session, Manager Wood suggested that the city renew the the contract for 12 months to give him time to come up with a plan and recommendation. Council did not seem to want to do that. Council must either renew the contract, rebid the contract or take over waste collection with city employees.

Council will receive an update on the status of the downtown sidewalk project and a proposal to replace the traffic signal at the bottom of Water Tank Hill. The sidewalk project may affect the state plans to resurface Main Street through Downtown.

Council will also consider a request from the Lake Commission for additional funds to pave additional parking at the park between the playground and the large shelter. The project will require an additional $5,000 added to the almost $10,000 the park has in their budget.

Council will consider 4 appointments to the Industrial Development Board, approval of several bids including repainting the Catoosa water tank in Interchange Business Park, and proposals for the next city financial audit.

Shooting Sports Park, hiring retirees and masonry mailbox holders and more to be discussed at city council

The proposed Shooting Sports Park on Albert Frye Road returns to the Crossville city council's agenda for Tuesday evening after complaints came from residents near the proposed site at last weeks council work session.

The project, brought to the city council some 18 months ago by Cumberland Co. Mayor Kenneth Carey will be built using over $2 million from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency on land the city is selling to the non-profit corporation that will operate the facility. At last months meeting the council agreed to the sale of the property under what city attorney Will Ridley described as a binding contract. The sale is to take place by April 1 under that contract.

During city council's work session last week, discussion on the

proposed Shooting Sports Park came up as neighbors expressed

concern for noise and property values.  City Engineer Time Begley

explained a diagram of the property to council. 

Several property owners in the area of the old city landfill property are now opposing the project due to noise and property value concerns. It is unclear what action the council can take at the March meeting.

The council's evening starts with the monthly audit committee meeting at 5:30 PM and the regular council meeting gets underway at 6:00 PM.

Council will also discuss and consider action on the matter of rehiring previous city retirees. Such rehiring will be more costly then the other hires as they would have to be place back under the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (TCRS). New city manager Gary Wood has given his recommendation on such hirings in the future.

Wrote Wood, “It would be my recommendation as a rule to not allow these employees to return unless there were extraordinary circumstances necessitating their return. In those cases, if they received a retirement buyout, that buyout would have to be paid back over whatever period of time they had to serve to reach the 30 year threshold or five (5) years, whichever is greater. Any other retirement non-buyout incentives received would be deducted from incentives received upon the subsequent separation.

Additionally, their pay should be reduced by 5% to put them on equal footing with other employees who now have to pay in 5% to ICMA (International City/Co Management Association) when the retirees would not be paying that amount. This is the only way I can see to keep the employee from “double dipping” and maintaining some equity with employees now under ICMA. Employees of Police or Fire could have knowledge based testing waived, but would still need to pass the physical testing requirements of new hires.”

Wood spoke during the work session and said that the city had hiried back the former city police chief David Beaty and that people seemed happy about that. Wood added that he felt the city needed guidance from the council for future decisions.

Wood also wrote about the bridge insurance that was offered to those who took early retirement and that it was less of a problem but still needed a ruling by the council.

Another somewhat controversial discussion was an ordinance that would not allow masonry structures to be built on the city's right of way that were higher then 6 inches. This would create a problem for the anyone who wanted to construct a stone or concrete mailbox enclosure. City engineer Tim Begley said there were several potential problems with those including traffic hazards, blocking the city ability to access their water and sewer lines.

Any such structures that currently exist would be grandfathered but new ones would not be allowed. They would have to be built on the owners property with a way for the mailman to access them.

The city is working on an ordinance to help control new cell phone and other communication towers as new technology changes. The city staff is requesting the council approve a temporary moratorium on such new construction and begin the process of approving a new ordinance.

Council will also consider adding a new full time position at the Palace Theatre. Currently there is one full time and 3 part-time positions. One of the part time positions would become a full time position due to the very busy schedule at the theatre and the need for additional help.

Work continues on the city's solid waste contract renewal. The matter was discussed at the council's work session with much of that on the difference between residential and commercial waste pickup. The matter has been discussed by council before without a resolution. It is something that needs to be addressed before the city continues toward a decision on taking back over waste collections or putting out a contract bid.  

Council asked to clarify personnel issues over rehiring retirees and retirement costs

Rehiring a previously retired city employee has turned into much more of a problem then the city initially believed and also more costly.

Crossville Human Resources manager Leah Crockett explained part of the problems to the city council during a work session Tuesday saying that the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (TCRS) has ruled that because of the way the city is now doing retirement, any rehired employees must be put back on the more expensive TCRS program.

In 2013 the city opted to leave the TCRS program and all new employees after July 1, 2013 went onto a program similar to a 401k that requires an employee put in at least 5 percent of their salary that is matched by the city. An employee can put in more and the city will match up to a maximum of 8 percent of the salary. Previous employees are able to stay on the TCRS program that requires no contribution from the employee and the city deposits 18 percent of the employee's salary toward the TCRS retirement program.

Crossville city council members discuss questions raised by HR Director

Leah Crockett over retirement complications of hiring previous retirees.

After some initial confusion, the TCRS has finally determined that rehiring a previous retiree means that employee must stop collecting any retirement payments if they had started them and they must go back on the TCRS program increasing the city's costs.

Crockett told the council that she needed some direction from council as currently there was no policy on the hiring of a previous retiree in the personnel policy. “There has been a little bit of miscommunication that has gone on between the city and TCRS,” explained Crockett. Initially last year TCRS had given guidance on a retired employee returning to work and receiving retirement pay but the information turned out to be incorrect and TCRS is working to straighten out the information. Crockett said she was waiting on written information from TCRS on their ruling.

Ms. Crockett explained that TCRS had a special session just about the situation at Crossville and they have told Crossville that any employees returning to work must be returned to the TCRS program at the more costly contribution rate. The initial information last year was that a rehire would instead go on the new retirement program through the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).

“Normally entities don't rehire” a retiree to return full time explained Crockett. She added that as she understands what TCRS is saying, if a rehired retiree stays 3 years or longer then their service and benefit is recalculated and it could cost the city even more money. “There's nothing in the handbook, policy or charter or anything that indicates how we are going to handle this,” added Crockett.

Crockett said the policy needs to speak to if an employee retires from our service are we going to hire them back with no questions or if we have stipulations such as a waiting time before rehiring, or an employee could only return in a part-time capacity.

Councilman Danny Wyatt said, “I believe TCRS has set our policy for us, hadn't it?

Crockett also said that even without a buyout, a city retiree is paid a retirement incentive after a number of years of between $2000 and $3500. Should the city pay that bonus again if a retiree retires a second time with more years of service based on the TCRS standard after being rehired?

Wyatt added that now that the city knows this it would be up to the HR department and the new city manager to work this out. “You bring a retired employee back, there's a pretty good reason why you did, he was good at his job,” said Wyatt.

Crockett said, “Council has to set the policy and approve the handbook. For there to be a policy, council has to approve that.”

Further issues could crop up if an employee goes to another job and then after a few years were to come back to a job with Crossville it appears the city would again have to put them back on the more expensive TCRS program.

Council discussed delaying any immediate action until the new city manager starts and they plan to take up the matter at a future meeting.

The current problem has come out of the recent rehiring of former police chief David Beaty who retired 2 years ago as well as the previous hiring of Steve Hill as the interim city manager. Hill has since been removed from that position.