Board of Mayor and Aldermen

January 16th, 2025

Jeremy Sisk and Mike Wall were both sworn in before the study session on Thursday night. Jeremy Sisk is the new alderman for ward 3 and Mike Wall was elected after being appointed alderman for ward 4.

All members of the board were present. No one signed up for the public hearings. All items 1-10 were completed and approved.

11. Communication from Mayor, Aldermen, City Attorney, and City Administrator Corbitt welcomed Alderman Sisk and thanked Alderman Silver for her service to the city, both on the BOMA and on the library board. Wall congratulated Sisk also and thanked public works for clearing the roads on Friday. He received a lot of positive comments from citizens. Wall finished his first ride along with Isiah Manfredi of Public Works. He was out for 10 hours and learned a lot. His goal for the year is to ride along with as many department heads as he can. In order to lead, you must be in the trenches and know what the people are having to work with. He also thanked the citizens for putting their trust in him as an alderman, as well as thanking his wife and family. Alderman Spicer also thanked Manfredi for how quickly they cleared the roads. However, there were some complaints that it got everyone back to school quicker and less sledding was done. She also welcomed Sisk. Sisk thanked everyone for the opportunity to serve. He has met with the department heads and is just reminded what a great staff we have here in White House. City Administrator Herman also congratulated Sisk and Wall. He too thanked Manfredi and his staff for the response to the snow. The city has slowly increased their numbers of plows and snow blowers. They used the blowers to clean off the sidewalks in the city. They will be bidding out the Sage Road project on February 4th. The stop sign on Calista will be installed January 17th at 10 am. The curve on Tyree at Dorris Farms is becoming an issue. The man who lives at that corner has had cars in his yard repeatedly. TDOT will not do anything about it. The city engineer said they can put in a speed sign and a curve sign. They are waiting on a part in order to put all of these in. This should reduce the crash rate. Herman met with the contractor of the rec center. They have full power and are waiting on the natural gas. That should be in this week. The ceiling in the gym is painted and the railing around the track is in. The bathrooms are tiled and the lower parking lot is getting started. They will be using the pavers for the storm water and they are getting ready for the curbs. The demolition of the old gym is set for the first week of March. Basketball ends the end of February and they will have a week to move things out and pull up some fo the gym floor to use later. The flag will continue at half mast except for Monday. The flag will be flown at full for the inauguration and then be put back to half mast for the remainder of the 30 days to honor President Carter.

Reports were acknowledged and the resolution discussion started. Amanda Brewton, human resources director, spoke to this. There have been changes to the personnel manual and that is what is being brought in front of the board. This is the link to all of the changes. They start on page 65. The first change is to the organizational chart. There have been changes in the library, planning department, and public services. The new chart reflects the changes. The chart was cleaned up to be more accurate. In the next section, the changes were made to update job descriptions. The next change was to the pay plan. The city implemented a new pay scale over the summer after the compensation study was completed. The old pay plan was removed and the new plan added. They looked at all scenarios on how the plan would be implemented and tried to account for them in the manual. Matthews asked what the criterion was for increases and decreases in pay. Brewton said that there was a 5% raise for each grade, and with a promotion if the 5% increase didn’t meet the new grade, the raise would be to the new grade. The addition was the 50% for total years. For example, if an employee had been working for 6 years and got a promotion, they would get 3 extra steps to move to the new grade. Demotions will work in the exact opposite. Matthews asked how promotions were handled. Brewton said that it is always the 5% per grade or the new grade which ever is higher. He then asked how a demotion would work if you went from head of department to a worker in that department. Brewton stated that had never happened before, and a demotion has always been handled 5% per grade. Matthews asked if the pay tables were public. Brewton said that they are only public if they are requested. Section five of the manual addresses probationary periods. The city is still using 90 days when most cities use six months. The police department will have 12 months and the rest of the city six. This will give officers time to complete the academy. Spicer asked if the fire department needed the extra time as well. Brewtson stated that the fire chief did not need that. It can be extended, but it has not been necessary. Merit pay language was also cleaned up.

Instead of just disciplinary suspensions or demotions, written and verbal reprimands were added to the plan. It did not seem that an employee should be eligible for a merit raise with reprimands in their file. The form for misconduct was also updated and is in the packet at the end. Matthews asked what the purpose for the compensation committee was. Brewton stated that it is for new hires. This deals mostly with questions on previous experience. An example was a police officer hired with previous parks experience. He was a park ranger who had carried a gun and had years of experience. The committee meets to make decisions on previous experience so that department heads don’t end up over or under paying a new hire. That is their only role at this point. Corbitt asked about the firearms change.

This change was made to update the language after TN instituted the constitutional carry. The name for the carry permit changed and the manual had to reflect the change in the name. Approved 4-1 Matthews No

14. Consideration ofthe Following Ordinances:

a. Ordinance 24-19: An ordinance to amend the Fiscal Budget for the period ending June 30, 2025. Second Reading. Approved (discussed at length in December)

b. Ordinance 24-20: An ordinance to amend the Municipal Code Title 18 Chapter 4 Stormwater Management Sections 18-409, 18-410, and 18-411. Second Reading. Approved (discussed at length in December)

15. Purchasing:

a. To approve or reject City Administrator Gerald Herman to acquire by purchase or condemnation of a portion of land owned by Norma Apple for the Sage Road Widening project in the amount of $63,809.64. The City Administrator recommends approval. This is for the largest parcel on Sage Road for the widening project. They used the same appraisal value used for the sewer project. There were three parcels given to the city and they are still waiting on word about the fourth from an out of state owner. City attorney Webb worked with the homeowner to finish this. Approved.

b. To approve or reject the purchase of a Tri-Max Mower attachment from Ladd’s Golf and Turf, LLC on the Statewide Contract #66045 in the amount of $42,442.80. The Parks and Recreation Director recommends approval. Kevin Whitaker of the parks department stated that this attachment will take the place of the old “reel” mowers. They use this to mow the ball fields. This will make the department more efficient. They will need to replace the small tractor they are using with a larger one, but the small one will work for now. It is still cheaper than replacing all three of these mowers. When they purchase another tractor, the small tractor will be full time at the cemetery. Approved.

16. OtherBusiness: a. To approve or reject appointments to various Boards and Commissions.

Approved

17. Discussion Items

18. Other Information

19. Adjournment

Nothing was discussed under these items.

Thank you for your support. I apologize for the lateness of these, but we had wrestling meets Tuesday-Saturday last week.