The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

The Dayton City Council convened its regular meeting at 6 p.m. on December 15, 2021. All members of the city council were present except for Byron Kaczmarski.

The city council discussed Resolution 1484, which would allow the mayor to execute an interlocal agreement with Columbia County for shoreline planning and master plan updates. Councilmember Mike Paris moved to approve, and Misty Yost seconded. Council passed the resolution unanimously.

Next, the Council considered approving a new contract with the union representing the city’s public works employees. The new agreement includes an increase of the annual clothing and boot allowance from $250 to $300, subject to the payroll capabilities of the city. The new contract also adds a Health Saving Account (HSA) plan in which the city will match contributions of the employees up to $25 each month. 

The contract stipulates union employees will receive a three percent wage increase in 2022, 2023, and 2024. In 2021 employees were given a 1.5 percent wage increase. Under the current contract, an entry-level wage includes possible five-step increases. The new agreement expands the steps to eight beyond the entry-level wage, which could allow the current maximum hourly wage of $23.71 to increase to $28.35 per hour with at least 16 years of service with the city.

Christine Broughton moved to approve the resolution with the stipulation that the dollar amount budgeted to cover the HSA not be exceeded. The motion was seconded by Mike Paris and passed unanimously.

Next, the Mayor presented ordinance 2021-1988 to address some “housekeeping issues” with the current 2021 budget. The budget amendment was proposed to reallocate funds across multiple funds to cover costs associated with various city expenses and allocate additional revenues.

City council members felt that the ordinance was unclear. Waitsburg City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe, contracted to develop the budget, was not available to answer any questions due to a schedule conflict. Deb Hays, the interim City Clerk, was asked if the ordinance had to be passed before the end of the calendar year. Ms. Hays said that she thought the city had until January 20, 2022, to “get all their ducks in a row.” The Council decided to table the ordinance until the next regular city council meeting.

The final action item was authorization for the mayor to approve a Discretionary Holiday for all regular status City of Dayton employees for Wednesday, December 22, 2021, per city regulations. The day before Christmas is generally approved as a discretionary holiday. With Christmas falling on a Saturday this year, the city employees asked for Wednesday to be the discretionary holiday rather than the day before Christmas as is customary. The Council passed the motion without comment.

The mayor introduced the new public works director, Ryan Paulson. Weatherford also thanked Christine Broughton and Mike Paris for their many years of service. He also thanked Heather Hebert and Fred Crowe for stepping up to serve when needed.

Christine Broughton, speaking for the Parks and Recreation Committee, said it had begun looking at redesigning the city park and was working with Vickie Zoller concerning the proposed public pool.

Misty Yost reported the HR Committee had been revamping the City Planner and Clerk/Treasurer job descriptions with input from Dena Martin. Yost included salary and benefit information in the job descriptions. Yost changed some requirements to allow job experience to substitute for education. The hope is that the changes to the job descriptions would attract more people to apply for these vacant positions. The Council voted to approve the new job descriptions. 

During public comment, Zoller said that a feasibility study must be done to determine the cost to build and maintain the pool. The Friends of the Pool advocates for a Parks and Recreation Parks District. Zoller offered the same proposal to the Columbia Port District.

The consensus of the Mayor and Council was that the city wants to support the aims of the Friends of the Pool but were unwilling to support the project financially at present.

Zoller said she thought money for the feasibility study would need to be raised before March to meet the timeline to get the matter on the ballot in November.

The meeting adjourned at 7 p.m.