9-1-1 budget response

During these economic times it may be difficult to say who deserves a pay increase more but the city of Greeley is making room in their budget for salary increases.

In the 2012 budget there will be a merit increase of 2.6% with about $788,000 for salaries and benefits. This money will be distributed to around 554 fulltime non-union city employees.

However, the emergency dispatchers will be receiving the largest amount of the sum at about 11%.

“Being a dispatcher requires a lot of training and we discovered that our Greeley dispatchers had a high turnover rate.” Greeley City Council member Robb Casseday said.

Greeley City Council had a study conducted that compared their city employees’ pay rates with other surrounding cities. As it turns out, the dispatchers were not the only ones who were experiencing a negative outcome from their employment.

It was found that 26% of Greeley's city employees were below the average minimum salary compared with other cities. Also, that 10% were above the maximum salary. But the salary turnover rate for dispatchers was the highest.

According to council member Casseday, the merit will allow employees that are under the average salary to bump up to the minimum salary. The merit will also freeze the salary of the employees that are over the maximum.

With the remainder of the funds, the city plans to give pay increases to other non-union city employees based on performance.

“Hopefully this merit will make our employees want to stay in Greeley rather than trying to work for a higher paying city,” council member Casseday said.

As for the locals, it may be nice to know that when dealing with the emergency dispatchers, they are not only taking care of you but the city is taking care of them too. 

A Fair Trade

Greeley- Kids who play sports in school district 6 and the surrounding area may utilize the agreement of trading sports utility usage between University Schools and Greeley public schools.

A resolution for this agreement will be voted on by the Greeley City Council in two weeks.

But the agreement received positive feedback,especially from council member Robb Casseday.

University Schools is a public k-12 charter school located in west Greeley.According to Andy McRoberts, the director of Greeley's leisure services department, University Schools’ recreational matters are separate from the Greeley public schools.

“But University has limited space for sports,” McRoberts said.

Instead of resorting to renting out space to play sports, an agreement was customized to the schools needs for sports like soccer, football and track.

According to McRoberts, Greeley public schools sometimes have too many kids in their sports programs and not enough places to hold practice or games. The agreement allows children from both Greeley public schools and University Schools to use various gyms, courts, tracks and fields around the city.

“We choose to trade in the form of hours rather than a dollar amount,” McRoberts said.

In most cases the schools will trade facilities according to the sport and which season it is in order to avoid conflicting schedules.

“It is important for the citizens of Greeley to see how this relationship with University Schools benefits school district 6,” council member Robb Casseday said.

For more information on recreational programs please visit the recreation division website.

To view a full summary of the resolution, see the Greeley City Council agenda.