Aldermen vote to begin redistricting process

Aldermen voted to hire the East Central Planning & Development District to help with redistricting the city’s four wards.

Officials took the action at last Tuesday’s regular meeting. New ward lines will be established based on the 2020 census.

Populations in the wards can change between each census as people move in or out. Governments by law must go through the redistricting process after each census to make sure the numbers are close and to ensure equal representation with racial makeup factored in.

After redistricting, some voters may be voting at a different ward.

“East Central has helped us before and they know what they are doing,” said Mayor James Young. “I don’t think there will be many changes but we have to go  through the process.”

The motion passed 4-0. Ward 1 Alderman Justin Clearman was absent.

Mayor Young voted twice to break tie votes concerning pay raises. He also broke a tie vote concerning a bill payment.

In other matters, aldermen voted to:

• Approve a motion to accept the bid of Cain Inc. as lowest and best bid of $456,917.25 for the Northside Park ditch stabilization project;

• Approve the following pay increases for the Cemetery Department, Larry McKinney one dollar per hour, Brad Hancock 75 cents per hour, Jeremy Huffman 75 cents per hour. 

The vote was Ward 4 Alderman Shawn Seales and Ward 3 Alderman James Tatum voting yes and Alderman-at-Large James Waltman and Ward 2 Alderman James Fulton voting no. Mayor Young voted yes and the motion passed.

Fulton said he was for an equitable pay raise formula citywide and had reservations about giving raises for just one department.

“I felt as a board like we gave a comfortable raise $1 per hour during budget time to all city  employees. Then in October after the 2023  budget was approved the Street Superintendent comes with a recommendation of performance based raises for his department and himself,” Fulton told the Democrat this week.

“I’m not against performance raises. I believe they’re a valuable tool for departments to use to maximize an employee skills. I just want to be more aware of how they’re distributed and how the increases are derived.”

 Fulton said he wasn’t sure how fair the raises were. For instance he said, one long-time employee got the minimum and the superintendent got the maximum.

“After the meeting, the next day,  I started getting calls from other department heads wanting raises too,” Fulton said. “They didn’t think it was fair for the Street Department and them not to receive a pay raise.

“I explained to them I understand their concern. I believe they all had valid points.” 

Fulton said he wasn’t against the raises just the way it was handled from the beginning. “I felt I couldn’t vote for them with voting against ones with the Street Department. I just don’t think the raises were handled correctly.”

• Approve the following pay raises for Jay Eakes one dollar per hour, Arthur Breakfield one dollar per hour, Nikki Walton, one dollar per hour, and to amend the budget to reflect the increases. The vote was aldermen Seales and Tatum voting yes and aldermen Waltman and Fulton voting no. Mayor Young voted yes and the motion passed;

• Approve a motion to pay Allen Engineering invoice for $2,151 on the airport lighting project. The motion was unanimously approved;

• Approve a motion to pay Allen & Hoshall invoice for $3,500 on the lagoon repairs out of the Philadelphia Utilities account. The motion was unanimously approved;

• Approve a motion to pay D&M Clark invoice for $383,469 for the lagoon repairs out of the PU account. The motion was unanimously approved;

• Approve a motion to pay Waggoner Engineering invoice for $5,530 for work on the Booker T. Washington gym renovation project. The vote was aldermen Seales and  Tatum voting yes and  aldermen Waltman and Fulton voting no. Mayor Young voted yes and the motion passed;

• Approve at motion to hire Jalen Griffin and Hagen Adkins for the Street Department. The motion was approved unanimously;

• Approve a  request by C Spire for a road bore along Cherry Avenue. The motion was approved unanimously;

• Approve the acceptance of $1,000 pretrial intervention monies from the District Attorney’s office. The motion was approved unanimously;

• Accepted the resignation of Darryl Rogers from the Police Department. The motion was approved unanimously;

• Approve a motion to hire Dusty Warner as a driver with the Fire Department. The motion was approved unanimously; and,

• Approve a motion to promote Richard Creekmore to EMT/captain with the Fire Department. The motion was approved unanimously.