Monday night’s city council meeting involved updates to the City of Columbia personnel policy, discussions on revamping the Trabue-Russell House, and Mayor Pam Hoots announcing an upcoming award presentation for local first responders.
Mary Anne Loy presented on behalf of the Trabue-Russell House committee to talk about renovations she believes the historic building requires.
Loy, laying out her idea in phases, highlighted several key areas in need of significant overhaul. The first phase consists of targeting the roof, gutters, and the siding that faces Jamestown Street.
“(The roof) has been on there a long time. It’s had some repairs. Three years ago maybe, the portion over the gable end on the original part of the house, that blew off in a storm,” Loy said. That portion of the roof was repaired but it was not a permanent fix.
Loy explained that the Jamestown Street siding was the original siding, though time and vegetation had been unkind to it and the porch.
“The second phase is to remove the vinyl siding and to restore real wood or real board or whatever is the most appropriate material, and to replace the windows in that section which are not original and not correct, and which are upside down. They were a gift back in the ’70s and they filled a hole, but if you’re going to get the house back to what it should be, that is something you would address,” Loy said.
Councilwoman Sharon Payne then asked if the Trabue-Russell House was on the National Registry as being on the registry would provide access to grants for upkeep. Loy replied that it was. Loy also suggested to the council that they could apply for other grants, such as the Jerry and Linda Bruckheimer Preservation Fund.
Councilwoman Rhonda Loy likened the current upkeep that has been done to putting a Band-Aid on a wound, and that the proposals Loy offered were necessary to properly maintain the house.
“It’s our building,” she said, adding that they had a duty to care for it. “I think we definitely need to exhaust any grant opportunities we have.”
The court decided to investigate tax credit and grant opportunities to ensure the Trabue-Russell House had the funds needed for its renovations.
The third item on the agenda was the first reading of an ordinance to update the pay/classification plan for city employees. Last year, the City of Columbia was audited by the state as their then-current pay/classification plan did not accommodate for all employees and did not properly reflect employees’ pay. The state auditor made the recommendation to update their policies. This was the first reading of this updated policy.
Rhonda Loy criticized the current minimum pay for city police officers.
“My concern, in looking at the wages, is our starting police officer pay. I think it’s an insulting amount,” she said.
The other city council members and Mayor Hoots responded that the minimum pay of $15.41 per hour listed on the pay/classification plan does not reflect an officer’s full pay. Untrained officers make $17.54 and their pay increases to $18.54 upon completion of training.
The minimum pay listed was a byproduct of the police being classified with other positions that also had a minimum pay of $15.41. Loy contended that the current city council would not always be in place and she worried that a future administration could drop the police officer pay to the minimum.
“We have to be competitive to keep these guys,” she said.
Police Chief Evan Burton said that this was the “best” group of officers that he had worked with in his career and they were happy with their pay rate.
The pay/classification plan will be voted on the next city council meeting as this was only the first reading of the item.
The fourth and fifth agenda items were to repeal the personnel policy and replace it with the current one. The court voted to approve both actions.
The court approved a motion to apply for additional ARC funding from the state for a gas line expansion grant. ARC funding would go toward expanding gas lines near the Jim Blair Center through Greensburg Road.
The final item was a resolution regarding a new ethics proposal.
“Our ethics policy hasn’t been updated since 1996,” said City Clerk Woody Sharpe.
The council approved the proposal.
After the official agenda items, Mayor Hoots and the council appointed genealogist Mike Watson to the police hiring board. Allison Cross, Director of Alumni Relations at Lindsey Wilson College, was appointed along with Old Columbia founder Tina Thomas to the Downtown Days Committee. They will be stepping in for Tiffany Collins, Jada Atwood, Gina Baker, and Chasity Yarberry who resigned. Andrea Feese was appointed to the committee in January.
Chief Burton spoke to announce that the Columbia Police Department had 384 additional contacts compared to last January. Contacts in this context can refer to anything from speaking at a school to a traffic stop.
During her comments, Mayor Hoots announced that the City of Columbia would be holding an awards presentation recognizing first responders. The awards are to be presented in conjunction with TJ Health. Hoots unveiled the logo for the awards and passed them out to the city councilmembers. The awards are set to take place on April 18 at the fairgrounds pavilion.
By Kenley Godby
kenley@adairvoice.com
