Hartley council approves wage hikes

Despite vocal pushback from one member, the Hartley City Council on Monday voted to give city employees wage increases ranging from 3 to 8 percent.

The base increase was 3 percent, with other employees like the police chief (8 percent), police officers (6 percent), city administrator and superintendent of public works (5 percent), and some others receiving more. According to discussion, wage hikes that were higher than the base rate were given for good job performance.

"I try to keep the employees at a fair wage where they need to be without letting their wages get behind," Superintendent of Public Works Jaron Benz told the council. "We need to incentivize their good work and keep them here. Any time we lose an employee – it doesn't matter what department – we stop moving forward. A lot of communities are dealing with that."

The increases were approved on a 3-1 vote, with Council Member Mary Westphalen casting the lone dissention. She wasn't against providing a cost-of-living wage increase, but felt some of the hikes were too steep.

"I'm representing the citizens, because you know what? The sewer [rates] will go up, the water will go up, the electric will go up," she said. "We won't have any choice pretty soon."

Council Member Roxann Swanson noted that even with the wage increase, the city will remain under budget. She also noted the police department has ended the last two years under budget by $46,000 and $50,000, respectively, and it's on track to finish the current fiscal year $56,000 under budget.

"We are not overspending our budget. We file our budget with the state every year," said Swanson. "It is validated, and it goes through the auditor. We live within our budget."

Still, Westphalen was concerned the city was allocating too much for employee wages each year.

"It doesn't matter if we're staying within the budget or not," she said. "We're spending a lot of money."

Council members that supported the raises believed it was important to keep good employees and incentivize their hard work. Benz noted that the city's electrical lineman could easily get higher wages in the private sector.

"It's really easy for young guys to wander," he said. "We want to keep our employees. We have good employees and we provide good benefits. We want to keep a sound workforce, and we want to keep a happy workforce."

Westphalen expressed concern that certain public works employees were getting higher-than-normal wage increases without attaining grade certification upgrades. Benz said they were working towards getting them, and when they do, their wages will be adjusted to reflect that.

"Which is only fair, because that's what they were hired under," said Council Member Brian Myers.

Myers also pointed out that even with the increases, city employees are still paid less than the average for the area. He noted communities who pay less than Hartley are struggling to maintain a workforce to staff their departments.

"We're close to the average, but we're still below it," he said.

Additionally, Westphalen was unhappy the city was paying for certain employee certifications like commercial driver's licenses (CDL).

"Big corporations like CFE don't even pay for CDLs," she said. "When you say a job requires a CDL, that's [the employee's] responsibility, not ours. It's another thing that we're paying for that we shouldn't be."

In the end, Myers, Swanson and Council Member Jerry Olson weren't swayed by Westphalen's argument and voted in favor of the increases. Council Member Ron Hengeveld abstained due to a conflict of interest, as his son is the chief of police.