New employee collects on overdue accounts, town hires her FT
The Jay town council voted Monday night to approve hiring part-time billing clerk April Watson as a full-time employee and one pay raise for town maintenance worker Kevin Herrman with discussion of a raise for Operations Manager Eric Seib in the near future.
Water billing clerk Watson has greatly reduced the number of overdue water accounts, with $691 currently outstanding, according to Watson Monday night.
She told the council the decision was made to put 90-day overdue water accounts on a six-month payment plan to give customers a chance to become current and about half of them are already paid off in the first two months.
Seib recommended Watson be hired full-time after seeing the recovery of money due in the water department and how well she works with the town.
In a motion made by Councilman Wayne Godwin and seconded by Mayor Shon Owens, the motion carried.
Seib recommended a raise for maintenance worker Kevin Herrman who in charge of the gas system and recently went through a gas inspection training, showing he is willing to learn new skills and pursue further certifications to become qualified.
“We've talked in the past about merit-based raises,” said Seib. “I think this is Kevin showing us who he is. He took something he had no idea about and ran with it, took the responsibility, gone out there and personally owned the system (positive inspection). I'd like to recommend a one dollar raise for Kevin. He is operationally qualified. He can do it now he's just not qualified to do it, but there are a couple of other things we still need him to do to get fully operationally qualified.”
In a motion made by Councilman Godwin and seconded by Mayor Owens, the motion carried.
“There have been quite a few people after Eric, trying to persuade him to go other places,” said Owens. “I would like to work with Eric, looking at a pay scale for his position as our town manager but also look at other towns in the area to look at what a competitive pay is. Based on our conversation, Eric is very happy where he is. I want us to do our homework and sit down with Eric and see what a competitive rate would be to keep Eric in our town. With the administration side, Jay is probably the best it's ever been. There's no way but up.”
Although there was no motion made, the council agreed that Owens could work with Seib to come up with an amount and address it at a future meeting.
