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Box movers making $37 an hour. Some workers making up to $75 an hour. What are these rates for? Working the city elections. It seems that a "tradition" has been set up over time to give the city workers an extra "bonus" in their salary for working early & late hours on election day.
This issue came up as a last item on the agenda at the council meeting. The motion to pay the salaries was requested to be tabled until July. However City Clerk Sloan requested that it not be tabled, and insisted on a vote quite adamantly. These workers were under his direction, and he wanted to see them paid. The tension rose quickly, with Mr. Sloan's assistant providing an emotional outburst agianst the city councilmen.
The debate apepars to be over the legality of Mr. Sloan to set the rates that are paid to the city workers. Councilman Chiappone (as well as other council persons) believe that, legally, the rates should be set by City Council.
At one point a city worker came up to challenge the city council, whio is obviously doing it's best to scrutinize any out of line expense. This worker said there would be chaos if not for the work the city workers do on election day, and that we would find no one to do the work if the rates were cut. Mr Lapilusa responded: "I am pretty confident that at half the rate that you get paid, we can get someone in here"
Ultimately the resolution to pay the workers passed, with a promise that the issue would be looked into.
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