The Wayland City Council Monday night adopted a couple of resolutions, one with the intention of saving the city a little money.
With a nod to approaching budget difficulties because of the Covid-19 viral crisis, members adopted a resolution that authorizes a letter of understanding to be executed with employee bargaining units to pay out some unused vacation time.
City Manager Josh Eggleston said, “With Covid quarantines, limited travel opportunities for employees, and staffing shortages, some departments have not been able to utilize leave time. Unfortunately when time is used it results in overtime for coverage.”
So the goal is to alleviate some of the current liability by paying it out on a straight time basis.
“This is a one-time offer, the city manager added.
The move is expected to help cope with a grim financial outlook virtually everywhere. State revenue sharing, the city’s largest source of revenue, is expected to be smaller than in previous years, as is money earmarked from the Gun Lake Casino agreement with local municipalities.
In other business Monday night, the council:
- Agreed to enter into a listing agreement with a realtor for the city owned property at 1065 133rd Ave., near the corner with Division Avenue n the south end of the city. An unnamed individual offered to buy the parcel if he could get the same kind of deal as Josh Otto and Keith Nickels four years ago.
- Re-elected Jennifer Antel as mayor pro tem, to pinch hit for Mayor Tim Bala if he is absent or to fill in for the mayor for civic functions if necessary.
- Was told by Eggleston and Police Chief Mark Garney that departments are back to full strength after some time off was spent due to the Coronavirus.
- Learned that City Hall now has a new telephone system installed.
