Christmas Stipends to be Awarded, But First a Tussle

Christmas Stipends to be Awarded, But First a Tussle

GREEN RIVER — Green River Councilman Allan Wilson added a motion to Tuesday night’s meeting, advocating for Christmas stipends for all full-time and part-time city employees. The motion was passed after much deliberation between council members.

The final stipend count came to: All full-time employees will be awarded $1,200, all part-time employees who work up to 500 hours will be awarded $250, 500 to 1,000 hours; $500, and 1,000 or more hours; $750. The city’s volunteer fire fighters will also receive $500.

The council also agreed across the board there would be no ‘double dipping’ of stipends for employees who may crossover.

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The full-time employees receiving holiday compensation will also include the city’s three contracted workers, City Prosecutor Bobby Pineda, Municipal Judge Jason Petri and Administrator Reed Clevenger.

Councilman Ted Barney wanted to make clear that no elected officials will be receiving any sort of financial compensation. The vote was for the city employees only.

 

Some Deserve More?

But, do some city employees deserve more recognition and compensation than what they receive for the work they put in?

Councilpersons Lisa Maes and Tom Murphy thought so. Maes thought all part-time employees should receive $500 across the board, mentioning instructors at the rec center who put in a lot of work.

Originally, the city’s volunteer fire fighters were set to receive $250 with some other part-time employees, but Murphy, a volunteer fire fighter himself, believed the city’s volunteer fire fighters deserved a higher compensation than $250 worth.

“$250 doesn’t show anything for the hours we’ve worked,” Murphy said. “On average we receive one call a day. We received a call at 4:30 this morning.”

Wilson agreed with Murphy, yet rebuked Maes’ statement by saying it wouldn’t be fair to the part-time employees who are required to put in so many hours a week.

“To me, those employees are just as important, but aren’t lucky enough to work that many hours,” Maes said.

“I agree, they are vital employees too, but it’s not fair to the part-time employees who work 20 hours or more a week,” Wilson said.

The stipend amount for fire fighters was motioned and emended to $500, and the stipend for part-time employees working up t0 5oo hours stayed at $250.

 

Everyone Gets Something

At the end of the day, every employee will receive something for Christmas, some may think it’s too little or too much, but they all receive something.

At the end of the meeting, every councilperson congratulated and thanked the city’s employees for a job well done.

“I’d like to just say something for the employees,” Councilman Gary Killpack said.

“Part of the reason we did that stipend for the employees is because, I think they have gone the extra mile these last couple years when money’s been really, really tight and we haven’t been able to do all the things we’d wanted to do, and so we wanted to tell them thank you for going the extra mile and being a good employee for the city.”

This sentiment, they all agreed upon.