Crossville council approves policy making hiring previous retirees more difficult.

Crossville city council approved a policy concerning the rehiring of previously retired city employees based on several meetings of discussion and input and recommendations from new city manager Greg Wood.

Mayor James Mayberry moved to approve the policy presented at the council previous meeting. Action on that policy was delayed pending additional information. A second to the motion came from councilman Scot Shanks.

The recommendation from Mr. Wood is that 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.

City manager Greg Wood and members of the city council

discuss policy on rehiring previous retirees.

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 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.

With no additional discussion, Mayberry called for a vote. Councilman J. H. Graham voted in favor reiterating that extraordinary circumstances could bring a decision back to the council. Councilman Danny Wyatt voted no saying he did not want to tie the city manager's hands. Councilwoman Pamala Harris also voted yes saying she felt as Mr. Graham did. Mr. Shanks and Mr Mayberry voted yes.

The motion was approved with a four to one vote.  

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.

Crossville council work session returns to several topics including shooting park and retirees

The April regular city council work session set for April 4 and 5 PM will discuss several items that the council has discussed before including once again the proposed shooting sports park and rehiring previous city retirees.

Additional revisited topics include the downtown Crossville sidewalk project, a splash pad for Centennial Park and the solid waste contract.

One new item was requested for discussion by councilman Danny Wyatt was forming a committee to examine the possibility of changes to the city's charter. No information was provided with the request from Mr. Wyatt about what those possibly changes might be.

Following Saturday's noise demonstration of firing weapons on the location of the proposed shooting sports park for residents who live near the property, council will discuss the sound issue. As it stands now, the shooting park project is dead until either council reverses its decision to rescind the sales agreement with the Crossville Shooting Park, Inc. group that will operate the park or a new location and new grant is secured for the project.

Albert Frye Rd. house on right.  The edge of the proposed

shooting spots park property is trees on the left.

Albert Frye Rd. in front of city property.  The city is keeping

40 acres on the right for future development and the 

shooting park will be behind that. 

This will be the third time council has considered the repercussions and costs of rehiring former city employees who took an early buyout two years ago but want to return to work for the city. With the hiring back of former Crossville police Chief David Beaty, the city discovered such employees must be returned to the much more expensive state retirement program that the city left because of those high costs. Council has been discussing a policy that would allow a city manager to hire such an employee if they felt such an employee was necessary. In addition, council is looking at a way to offset the additional expense and how to look at the 6 month salary bonus those employees received.

The city manager will update the council on the downtown sidewalk project. The city expects to have the final permit from Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) in a matter of days. Also council will discuss the replacement of traffic signals at the bottom of Water Tank Hill.

Council has discussed the upcoming action necessary on the city's solid waste collection contract and a decision is needed soon of the contract will automatically renew. Part of the discussion has been over the differentiation between residential and commercial properties that has caused some issues. Also, collection of leaves and brush has been another discussion council is considering.

The city is continuing to pursue the purchase of a jet fuel truck for the Crossville Memorial Airport. The city is seeking a grant to pay for 75 percent of the cost leaving the city to pay $8750 to acquire the $35,000 used truck.

Council will also discuss four appointments to the Industrial Development Board as the terms of the four members appointed by the council are expiring.   

Council discusses rehiring retirees but delays action to special called meeting March 21 at 5 PM.

Crossville city council put off action on a policy on rehiring previous city retirees, including those who took an early retirement buyout some two years ago.

The matter will come back up again at a special called meeting set for Tuesday March 21 that will be followed by a work session on the city's capital improvement plan. The special called meeting is set for 5 PM and will be immediately followed by the work session.

Greg Wood wrote a memo of his take on the issue during his first week on the job, “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.”

“This is a rather sticky wicket for 2 reasons,” said Wood at the start of the discussion during council's regular March meeting. The first thing is people who participated in the buyout program and addressing that issue and possible payback if they come back to work as the program was designed to reduce payroll and now they are coming back. The other issue is coming back into the TCRS (Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System) and the difference between 5 percent expense to current employees and the TCRS expense of 18 percent.

Wood added that these were policy questions for the council to address.

Council member J. H. Graham said he did not want to discriminate against those who took the buyout saying, “if they are good employees and the manager wants them back, I think we should give him a policy that will let him do that.” Graham suggested a formula that the city manager could work from such as an agreement that any buyout employees would agree to not have a cost of living increase for at least 3 years and they would not receive the usual 5 percent increase after 6 months for a period of 2 years.

Graham moved to use his suggestion and as calculations were thrown out Mayor James Mayberry said he would like to have the calculations on paper and the motion was withdrawn to be moved to March 21 at a special called meeting.

Other items on the work session include third reading on the updated public records ordinance along with second reading of an ordinance on excavation and cuts in public right of ways that disallows masonry structures taller then 6 inches on public right of way and second reading of the ordinance on telecommunications.   

Crossville council holds special called meeting and work session Tuesday evening

The Crossville city council will meet in a brief special called meeting followed by the monthly March work session Tuesday March 7 in the third floor conference room.

The special called meeting to handle Centennial Park concessions bids will be held at 5:00 PM. The city has received two bids for the operation of the concessions operations at Centennial Park, the Duer Soccer Complex and Garrison Park. Proposals were received from Nick's Italian Ice and W6 concessions.

A committee was appointed by the interim city manager to study the proposals and make a recommendation to the council. Quick action is needed to be ready for a tournament scheduled for March 17-19.

Immediately following the called meeting the council will meet in work session to discuss a number of items expected to be on the regular meeting agenda March 14. Subjects on the work session include rehiring of previously retired employees, the city's annual capital improvement plan and a discussion of the solid waste collection contract.

Previous discussion on the subject of rehiring previously retired city employees has revealed that rules by the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (TCRS) mean that such actions are more expensive then hiring those who were not previous retirees. Those rehires must be returned to the TCRS retirement program that costs the city some 18 percent of the employee's salary each year versus a retirement cost of between 5 and 8 percent for the program the city uses for new hires similar to a 401K program.

The city Human Resources department is requesting the council to approve a policy on the conditions of any such rehiring. According to the agenda information the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) surveyed some Tennessee cities and of the 14 responses only 2 advised they would rehire a previous retiree in a full time capacity.

The council will be presented with a rough draft of the annual capital improvement plan prepared by finance director Fred Houston. Council will review the document and determine if a work session is necessary to review the plan in more detail and get more information.

As the city gets closer to the deadline for notifying their contractor Cumberland Waste Disposal of the decision on whether to rebid the city's solid waste collection contract or to take the work back in house to be done by city employees. Street department supervisor Kevin Music will be addressing the issues that need addressed as the city moves forward to make that decision.

Also on the council work session are discussion of a telecommunications facility ordinance and a moratorium on new facilities until the city can complete work on the ordinance. The ordinance would govern towers, antennas for cell service, broadband internet and other communications technologies. The ordinance is being developed by a committee of several departments involved and still has finishing touches needed before final approval.

The city is looking at a system to provide city sewer to developed areas out side of the city limits because the new rules on annexations. The city has received requests for sewer service and has been looking at ways they can provide the needed service in a fair way. The policy is being developed and will be presented to council with a request for some decisions for moving forward with the program.